Mario and Sonic The Rings of Fate
by rangikufan999
Summary: Our heroes Mario and Sonic once again find themselves working together to fight off impending evil. With the mystery of ancient rings, mysterious new foes that seek to control these rings and the threat of an untimely demise once again upon their shoulders, will our heroes prevail or let evil put them to rest finally? The fate of an entirely new world is resting in their hands!
1. A New World

**Author's Note (10/21/2012): First chapter of my story. At first glance it seems like a lot of reading, and this particular chapter I think I poured a whole bunch of 5 dollar words into, I realized that I don't need that many of those words though. **

The mustached hero was fast asleep in his chair dreaming of vernal and more innocent days, and of the Italian food his mother used to make him. He was just a wee lad sitting at his parent's old home. A plate of hot spaghetti was placed before him to which the young Italian's face lit up with pure delectation upon this sight. It was all he would ever eat, and his mother was jovial to cook it up for him. Another plate was placed at the opposite end of the table across from Mario. It was for Luigi, who soon popped into the room and took his seat at the table.

Red tomato sauce crowned the apex of their meals from a ladle their mother was using. She brought over a pan with meatballs in them and shoveled out several to each of the boys. Luigi watched enviously as Mario's plate had gained more savory balls of beef than his own. Snatching one up from his brother's plate, Luigi quickly consumed the meatball.

"Hey! Thats-a my meat-a ball!" Mario yelled with fury laced in his voice.

"It's-a mine now." Luigi replied acerbically with a devious smile forming on his face.

Anger fumed from the smaller sibling, who released the built up emotion in a cascade of tears. He had quickly found the comfort of his mother's arms, who scolded Luigi for the theft of Mario's comestibles. Luigi was always amongst the tall shadow of his brother, it was something that haunted him even as a kid. When all was qualmed by their mother, both of them had returned to finishing off what they were given. The dream started to get fuzzy at that point, a whizzing sound of some sort was becoming louder by the second.

All turned black and stayed this way for a what seemed to be a monotonous amount of time. Twinkling sparks of stars slowly began to fill the scenery that was introducing itself. There was something, traversing the ocean of black planes. A small rock of some sort. It's true genesis could not be discerned from just a mere personable.

Tailing right behind it was a trail of light blue flames, and where ever this rock was heading for, it would surely arrive with time to spare. The destination of this object would not be hidden amongst manifolds of mystery for much longer, because the planet of the Mushroom Kingdom soon came into sight.

Acquiring new red flames that wrapped vehemently around it's shape, the rock entered the atmosphere and began to descend to the surface. With a bit of swerving and maneuvering, one could tell that this rock was on a mission. A supposition of even the most dim witted person could be proposed after the castle of a notoriously well-known villain was a mile away.

The rock unleashed fury on a lurching stone formation that happened to be hanging over the edge of a cliff it passed by. Not even a second after that booming assault against the environment, before even the cracked crag had a chance to land, this rock had made a grandiose appearance in the main hall of the castle.

"Graaaahhhhh What is this that disrupts my dinner?" Bowser roared with much contempt for this sudden intrusion of said meal time.

His dinning table lay within a heaping pile of destroyed wood. The plate of food that he had been devouring seconds ago, was now mere grub for the wrigglers. With fury about to be unleashed upon all that were in radius, the koopa king got up from his chair and decided to inspect what just ruined supper for him. A foreboding aura blanketed the diameter of the crater the rock made, and the rock itself was brimming with shadowy malice.

"He he, Well hello, what do we have here?" Bowser quickly shifted his mood once he felt the powerful aura of the object.

Without any warning a voice made itself known to Bowser. It seemed to be emanating from the stone, and echoed throughout his chamber.

"What is it that you truly desire? King Koopa." A deep and omnipotent sounding voice questioned Bowser.

What transpired next can only be defined at this point as a deviant concoction of a nefarious plot, And though the owner of this new voice that seemed to be everywhere was nowhere to be seen, one could tell from just the thick air of it that he was discord at it's purest element. A plan was set in motion, and for whom it involved and to what it's goal was, concealed itself under a shroud of shadows.

Mario's dream was cut short with quite a rude awakening just then as something smashed into the window of his home. It was a rock of some sort and it sure startled him up with a fright, because he had fallen out of his chair. After regaining composure he then yelled "Mama-mia" while rubbing his noggin. Mario then approached the strange new stone.

It's form had smoke billowing from it. He then called for Luigi, who came tumbling down the stairs. Rolling into the wall he hauled himself up to his feet, still dazed nonetheless. Luigi then looked over at the rock and took an apprehensive step back. The mustachioed plumber in red then proceeded to get closer to the stone.

He was about to seize the strange object when suddenly it began to unveil itself, drawing him and Luigi into an alternate universe. The stone returned to it's original form, and a familiar laughter of evil permeated through the area. Bowser stomped into the room, his theme following right behind him. Kamey was also with him as well.

"Gwahahahahaha, it really worked." The koopa king laughed. "Whoever this mysterious person is shall receive the highest rank in my army."

"An absolutely dreadful idea your wickedness." Kammy replied.

"Prepare the troops for tonight's raid. The princess shall be mine once and for all." Bowser bellowed with yet another evil laugh.

"Yes your Dastardliness." She replied. "I shall prepare them at once."

The whole of the world faded into blackness for Mario and Luigi. Their bodies appeared in a world with a sky void of any color other than black. In-spite of the oblivion in which they found themselves there was an ambient light illuminating the place not unlike that of his own home. It made everything glow with an astonishingly beautiful hue of purple close to that of an amethyst. Mario awoken to see his new and strange surroundings. Luigi was to the right of him, passed out cold. This prompted him to quickly rise to his feet.

"Luigi Let's-a Go!" He yelled to his mustached brother, who upon hearing Mario yell, awoke with a startle. Both males were soon standing, upon which they then began to explore the area. On their minds were thoughts of how bewildering their current situation had just become. Discerning the reason as to why the stone pulled them into this world was completely beyond them.

Just then Mario saw a familiar looking shoe on the ground. He grabbed it and revealed it to his brother. As he clamped the sides of his noggin with his hands Luigi let out a worried "aaahhhhhooooo". He knew who's shoe it was, both of them did. It was their friend Sonic's shoe of whom they had not seen since several moons ago.

"It's-a Sonic's Shoe! This is-a bad!" Mario said as his worry for the blue hedgehog peaked at it's highest point.

"Oh no What-a happened?!" Luigi gasped. Mario scanned around the area for any other clues, but the only other thing that was to be found on the ground was a ring. It glowed with a red hue and Mario could feel power emanating from it. Picking it up, he felt his instincts tell him to slip it on to his finger. Once he did so he automatically without thinking, lit up a fireball within his palm.

Luigi was surprised at the ring's power as was Mario. Their heads spun fervently around, with eyes that desired to soak in all of the scenery that was before them. In the particular spot that they landed in, there was of course dirt, but it was not soil colored in the same manner like that of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario's hands scooped up some it, and sifted through the grains of dirt. Each one of them was a slightly different shade of blue, and all pieces of the ground remained in the confines of a small range of blue hues. The dirt was returned to it's original place as both of their eyes caught sight of what hindered there vision from completely dancing about in the sky.

Trailing up the barks of various trees they were introduced to some query happenings. Part of the tree's wood appeared to be encased in a layer of thick crystals, of course this was later denounced and found to be a mutual part of the whole organism.

Though they were keen on staying and perhaps studying this quandary, a voice vivified them. With a pounding of their hearts they raced into the nearest bush in route of the voice. Ducking under high hanging crystallized trunks, and hopping right above low hanging stumps, the two plumbers hurried to aid whoever called out for help. A trench had almost stopped them dead in their tracks had not Mario spotted vines dangling from trees. He made a quick decision and recklessly jumped at the vine, reaching out to catch one.

The moment that he gripped one he swung his momentum full force towards the other side. Luigi was quick to follow suit and soon the two were once again on the run. At last they started to see trees becoming sparse their eyes seeing a more field heavy terrain approaching them.

When the heroes arrived on the scene they witnessed a fiend made of Ice-blue crystals with the symbol X carved on his chest having Sonic pinned to a mountain side by his throat, his left shoe was missing. This creature stood about eight feet tall, and the very crystals that comprised of his composition acted as sort of a battle armor for him. His spaulders molded around his shoulders, and also the inner-more segment of the armor resembled the shape of a crimped triangle.

This part of the shoulder armor lay to both the right and left sides of his face, not particularly grazing his crystal cheeks, but being a very aloof distance away. They offered his face a moderate amount of protection, not that he was in dire need of a defensive mechanism. His skull was pure crystal just like the rest of his body, and was carved just like a battle helmet.

His chest plate was solid all the way on through, offering a most ideal amount of protection for his core, the only thing particularly living about him. His grip on sonic cut off his airway drastically, and could easily be issued the command to kill at any second if he really wanted to.

"You won't get away with this you... block head..." The hedgehog said while gasping for breath.

"Just give me the ring and I won't have to kill you" The being said in a cold voice.

"Over my dead body, crystal breath" Sonic replied.

"Very well, It's your funeral." The crystal beast responded.

Sonic closed his eyes as the beast's arm began to squeeze even harder around his throat. He could feel his lungs beginning to struggle for air. Knowing this was to be his end, he started reliving the memories of his past. The faces of every friend he had ever met, and even the foes that he had quarreled with raced through his mind. His face contorted in emotional pain as he realized he wouldn't be able to save them.

A familiar voice then brushed past his ear. With whatever muscle control he had left he attempted to gaze over his shoulder to discern this sound. The sight he had was just enough to allow him to create a supposition as to the identity of this amicable friend.

"Yahoo" Mario said whilst he jumped out of the bushes flailing a fireball at the creatures arm and jumping into its face. The fireball crashed into it's arm and raged for mere seconds before completely melting it off. The crystal beast's face then soon met with the plumbers efficacious foot. Mario's shoe pressed into his skull with amplifying pressure and propelled the rest of his body off from this focal point. This led to Mario doing a back flip and landing in front of the thing with his fists stretched out and ready to fight more.

With Sonic now free from it's clutches, the hedgehog was at liberty to make a hasty getaway to Mario's side. Luigi came out of the bushes seconds after Mario however on his way over he face-planted. An embarrassing sigh left the lungs of Mario after he disconsolately watched. Luigi quickly got up and returned the running shoe to Sonic. The hedgehog was overfilled with gaiety upon this fated reunion.

"Oh man am I relieved to see you dudes." Sonic replied as he took back the shoe with much thanks.

"Who is-a this guy" Mario asked while his friend stopped to catch his brother.

"I don't even know how I got here, I found some ring and then this bozo attacked me." He replied. Mario heard ring and then showed Sonic the ring that he had found.

"Whoa! This guy wants 'em for some reason, I'd give him mine, but it s the only way I can use my speed in this place!" Sonic stated.

"Enough babbling, Hand over the rings now." The creature again commanded to both of them now.

"Watch out Mario, this guy is no joke." Sonic said while slipping his shoe back on. "He gives Mecha Sonic a run for his money."

"Okeydokey I will-a give it my-a best!" Mario replied.

The crystal beast opened with the statement "Die" and then he started to spin around like a top. His fists extending straight out as he spun. He was fast, really fast and Mario had but little time to react, managing to quickly jump out of the way with not a second to spare. His face nearly grazed the very air around the beast's fists.

Luigi, on the other hand, had a full frontal encounter with the spinning beast and was knocked into a nearby bush. Sonic, of course, easily evaded the spin attack of the creature. With a sudden change of momentum, the thing turned swiftly towards Mario and then pummeled the ground with his arms which shifted through the dirt, it's intended destination was the plumbers current location.

His crystal-like arms rammed out of the ground with lightning-fast speed and slammed into Mario 's frame. As he cascaded into the air, he managed to do a flip, grab on to a branch of a nearby tree, and propel himself right back at the crystal freak. He energized his fist with flames and aimed directly at his chest. The beast moved and avoided Mario 's flurry of fists, almost in such a manner that seemed to chastise Mario's very speed, or lack-of that is. To this creature Mario was moving slower than that of a turtle.

"I grow tired of your feeble abilities." The beast said. "I shall use my ring to slaughter you all."

Just as the crystal creature pulled out a ring similar to the ones the heroes had, he turned yellow and glew with a vehemently powerful and shinning aura. The very ground that Mario and company stood upon shook with the might of a thousand raging earth spirits. The cracks created upon the ground released horrible rising steam that carried with it a terrifyingly scary howl, as if the planet itself was crying in pain upon this being's abilities.

He turned to face them as his mustering of what seemed to be a quintessential energy source, came to a subtle end. When he began to speak to them again, his eyes narrowed, piercing their very cores with a cold life threatening fear of death.

"I guess since you are about to die, I can tell you my name." The creature stated. "It's Hyotai."

After introducing himself he covered the distance between him and Mario with a powerful leap. Bellowing a mighty roar he whipped his arms and attached them to the plumbers body. He easily flung him into the nearby cliff without so much as any kind of physical strain to his body. Even the little amount of physical prowess he used to toss Mario so effortlessly evoked Mario into a path heading straight through the entire cliff. This ended up causing an explosive sound to resonate from the impact site as soon as Mario collided with the stone. Luigi rushed to the aid of his brother, leaping directly into the fray of the massive crater violently made by Hyotai.

"Oh no, Mario!" sonic called out. Sonic could feel the raw strength of Hyotai's ring lingering thickly in the area around them. He knew with decisive wits, that at the rate they were heading at, they would without a doubt in his mind, be slaughtered.

"Your next, blue punk." Hyotai stated with a perdition of salient algidity.

Luigi came across the non-responsive body of Mario and tried to rouse him from his pertinacious syncope but it was of no use, he was out cold. Back in the clearing Sonic quickly devised a plan within his head. Raising his arms towards sonic, Hyotai aimed and shot crystal shards with relentless zeal that became more and more apparent with each passing moment. Nevertheless the blue hedgehog was too fast, using the power of the ring he began running around at phenomenally rapid speeds. He ran circles around the body of the crystal thug.

His speeds picking up the dirt in the surrounding area and creating a cyclone of granules. Sonic's frame reared off from the decoy and surged to the aid of his pals. He jumped into the cracks hopping from rock to rock before he finally chanced upon plumbers. His hand reached for Luigi who shouldered Mario upon his back. Once he grabbed on Sonic smiled at him and activated his ring's powers once more. Upon a glow from the ring shining brightly, The two of them made a hasty retreat, with Mario being carried away as well.

"This is utterly futile." Hyotai stated as he slammed a fist into the ground and invoked the wrath of a shock-wave that was also the focal point for a brand new crater. This also dissipated the vortex of dust that was flung up a mere minute ago. He looked around and much to his dismay he found that his prey had escaped into the wilderness.

"Running will do you no good Plumbers, Those rings belong to my master and none shall stop him in his quest. " Hyotai laughed, his aura starting to decline as he powered down.

Sonic made sure that he covered a great deal of distance from the area that they had just clashed with that hulking crystal behemoth.

"I see a cave in the distance. We can hide out in there. " Sonic announced after careful scanning their new surroundings.

Luigi struggled to hang on to the hedgehog that used his speed with such recklessness. Sonic began ascending the hills, and just as he reached the top the sky cackled and lashed out a bolt of lightning. It's sound echoed across the environment signaling it's presence to all the creatures and beings residing within it.

"Oh, perfect c. Bad weather, just what we need. " Sonic groaned.

Luigi looked around at the scenery while Sonic ran to a safe dwelling. He really found it to be strange and mysterious. Plants that were purple in hue and not just any plants, there were mushrooms with fiver like trunks. The head of the mushrooms were even more peculiar than the color of everything. It was crystallized, and had a very beautiful sparkle. On the side of the mountain were plants with stems that went up and then when it neared the main plant, it drooped.

The heads of these plants had small diamond shaped crystals hanging from it. Not only were there a lot of plants with something crystal based about them but even some of the creatures were too. Luigi could also see little flying creatures that glinted and sparkled by themselves. He found it peaceful to look at but it lasted only for a few seconds. Sonic and company soon arrived in the cave.

Luigi's hand let go of Sonic fs and they then went deeper into the cavernous place that was to be their hiding place for a while. Scattered about on the walls of the cavern and even on the ceilings were clusters of crystals that let off very bright lights. The source of such light was unknown. Sonic took a closer look at one of the crystal formations and could see right through the crystals. They were even clearer than a nicely washed window, but that was just the appetizer for Sonic's eyes. The main course was what lay inside of the crystals. There were veins and nerves.

The crystals were alive. In the center of the crystals formations was a roundish and purple colored organ, or so it seemed to look like an organ. This organ was pumping rapidly just like a heart. It was breath taking, Where ever they were it was a spectacle to behold. After inspecting the crystal they decided to travel even further to see what else they could find while also making sure to get as far away as possible from Hyotai. When they turned the corner of one pathway they started to hear the sound of drums and chanting.

Their feet took them closer and closer to this sound and when they found it they just stood there speechless. Before their eyes lay a large opening with a huge crater. Inside that crater was a large spire in the center that connected to the ceiling. All up the spire were numerous collections of crystal formations leading to a enormous gathering of many crystals in one area of the spire.

That section of the spire shined the brightest of any crystals in the entire cavern. Gathered around the spire inside of the crater were many small creatures holding spears crafted from what seemed to be crystals inside the cave system. Some were beating on drums and some were calling out chants in a weird language. Luigi and Sonic couldn't keep their eyes off from this exciting and awe-inspiring ceremonial ritual that the creatures were performing.

**Please leave reviews for any errors you find, and plot reviews. If you like the story enough, tell your friends about it, spread the word. I desire input from many sources. :)**


	2. Ancient Legends

**Author's note (10/21/2012) : I brushed up this chapter a bit, and tried to make it so the chief didn't trust them after one sentence. It still seems short, but ehh, I think it's fine for now. I also tried to rearrange some of the sentences so that the whole chapter flows a bit better, and I decreased some of the chunky chapters. **

"What are they?" Sonic inquired.

Luigi didn't know what they were so he just shrugged his shoulders. Both of them continued to watch the ceremony with intrigued looks. They focused their gazes on these creatures that lay inside of the crater. These things wore face masks that covered their entire heads, and their bodies were very frail. The masks held intricate paintings on them and in the middle were two differently sized paintings of eyes.

In their chests were cores of some sort. It obviously was something that was crystal based, but it seemed to glow with life force. The core seemed to be a living organ for these creatures just as the crystals themselves were alive. Just then the music stopped and out from another path on the other side of the cave stepped a larger creature that was 4 times the size of any other creatures around the area.

"That must be their leader!" Sonic thought.

Seconds later something grabbed both Sonic and Luigi by the shoulders. It was two of the creatures and soon they were dragged out into the crater and thrown before the bigger one.

"Loepoe loe bayruu oe?" The chief spoke to one of the tribesmen.

"bayzhoeen loepoe bayruu" One replied.

"I don't understand a word they are saying!" Sonic told Luigi.

"Silence! You have interrupted our most sacred of rituals, what do you have to say for yourselves?" The chief commanded. "Speak wisely or else face a most cruel fate at the hands of my people."

Luigi freaked out at his words and quivered while Mario was still past out and right next to his side. Sonic then knew it was up to him to explain their situation to the chief.

"My name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, These are my friends, Luigi and Mario. We don't come from your world, but we do not seek out trouble." Sonic began to explain.

"Surely you didn't think that you would just wander into our territory and not cause problems did you?" The chief stated.

"It was never our intention to interrupt your ceremony, We are deeply sorry about that. Our reason for entering this cave is because some dude was chasing us. Hunting us down for a few rings that we happen to come across."

The chiefs expression changed as soon as he heard them talk about their rings.

"You have come into possession of the sacred rings told of in legends?!" The chief quickly asked.

"Well, yeah, I found one and my red pal over there has one as well. I'm not sure what they are but in any case they are extremely powerful." Sonic continued.

"Indeed they are." The chief eyed Sonic and the plumbers from head to toe. "You don't seem like you have intentions of the evil sort, Though I don't trust you fully yet. For now you are safe from any sacrificing by my people. My name is Ugling and we are Zhoegonglien, an ancient tribe that has inhabited these crystal lands for centuries."

The chief relieved the two tribesmen standing next to the group and then ushered Sonic and the plumbers to follow him. He took them past a lake that had a waterfall emptying its contents into said lake. They departed from the main room and down a dark passage until they reached a room that had an entrance made of crystallized vines.

"Let me share with you the history of what you now possess." Ugling said to them as he entered into the room. He stood near a pedestal that had a crystal orb sitting on top of it. "Please enter and take a seat, for knowing about the rings is important."

"What are these rings anyway? Why do they contain such power?" Sonic inquired.

"Do not test my patience, blue one. You shall learn in due time." The chief replied in a rather harsh tone.

Just as the chief was about to answer that question, Luigi interrupted them and started to ask the chief about his brother. He was wondering if there was anything that could wake him from his slumber.

"Your kind must have no manners, nevertheless, I do have something for him." The chief then skittered out of the room and returned minutes later with a crystallized flower of some sort. He gave the flower to Luigi and instructed him to administer the flower orally to his brother. Doing so Luigi watched as Mario began to spring back to life. He hopped up from the seat and yelled "Yippee!". After that, Sonic filled Mario in on what was happening, and as soon as he was caught up to speed the chief returned to Sonic's earlier question.

"Those rings were supposedly a myth passed down since ancient times from my ancestors. No one has seen any rings of stories told until now. It is said within the legend that the rings lay hidden until the day that she is said to return to the land to free it from an age of tyranny and chaos."

All of them listened intently as Ugling explained to them what the rings were. Luigi was starting to get a bit bored, he was never that interested in history anyway. As soon as he would start to fall asleep Mario would punch him in the shoulder to keep him awake.

"Who is this she that you speak of chief Ugling?" Sonic asked.

"The goddess depicted in myths, Tsukiyomi. She is the one said to have created the world and everything that resides within it." The chief said with much zeal. "I insist that you know more of the goddess, for she is inherently connected to the rings."

All of them including Luigi were intrigued by this Tsukiyomi woman.

"It all began when a goddess appeared. This was at a time when the universe was but a mere speck of dust in the world." Ugling began. "She was a being that was very kind-hearted but also loved a good battle or two. No one knows for sure what compelled her to make our universe into what it is now but as the myths say she was trying to escape a great evil.

This evil, was of course, bent on controlling the ultimate power that Tsukiyomi possessed. Tsukiyomi knew she was not strong enough to combat him. So perhaps she used the world as a means of hiding in."

"No surprise their." Stated Sonic. "Villain's are always after power." He knew all too well about the motives of villains.

Ugling was just baffled at the rudeness of the heroes, He had never had guests this rude before that he didn't just sacrifice or used as food for a banquet. Clearing his throat he then continued his story.

"Yes, it was a typical villain's plan, He nearly succeeded too." Ugling continued. "At the last final struggle between the two entities Tsukiyomi Sacrificed her body and transfered her power into 50 separate and powerful rings. These rings were said to have scattered to the far ends of the universe that was created at her hands."

"As the legend states, Tsukiyomi will return to life when all of the rings are united as one." The chief stated. "Tablets in our ancient mother tongue spoke of this and foretold that when the great evil returned that only heroes with the ability to wield such rings properly could help the goddess restore balance and vanquish the evil once and for all. It also states that should the rings fall into the wrong hands that the world would plummet into eternal despair."

Mario and company listened to the chief's words and feared for the worst of the world. It then struck them instantly when they thought of the world, or more so about their own worlds. How were they suppose to even return to their own homes? This thought lay heavily on their minds alongside the history lesson the chief was giving them but decided to wait until he had finished telling his story.

"That is all that the legend tells us of." Ugling concluded.

Mario then raised his hand to try and show some respect to the elder instead of interrupting him this time.

"I appreciate the newfound respect. Now what is your question?" Ugling asked.

"Well, We-a don't come from-a this world, and we-a were wondering how-a we can-a get back to ours." Mario said.

"We would if we knew how..." Sonic added.

"The-a only thing that we-a know about, is-a how we even-a got here in the-a first place." Mario began to explain how him and his brother ended up in this strange new world. "It all-a started with this-a strange stone that-a glowed. It-a just sucked us in and-a dropped us off right-a in the jungle."

The chief looked very intrigued by Mario mentioning a stone that glowed.

"The same thing happened to me in my own world of Mobius." Sonic added.

"Hmm, Very intriguing indeed. This is spoken of in a side tablet." The chief responded excitedly. "The myth states that the ones meant to bear the rings and fight side by side with the goddess are to be visited by rocks that glow with power."

"Is there a way to return to our worlds then chief?" Sonic asked quizzically.

"I don't have the answer to that one, but you may find information on the subject in the Iron Hill Dunes to the south of the crystal tropics." The chief stated.

After having learned that these heroes were possibly the chosen ones he changed his view upon them. He came to the conclusion that they were not enemies, however they were very rude. He would aid them nevertheless and a funny feeling told him that he could trust them. Assuming this was the spirit of the goddess rendering this message unto him, he did just that.

"I think I can trust you now, as much as I dislike your rudeness, I will trust you and I hope that this history lesson will aid you in your journey." He told them.

Just as they were about to finish up their discussion there was a loud crashing sound coming from the main chamber. All four of them rushed to the scene to investigate. When they arrived, Hyotai was standing near the crystal spire with one tribesmen clutched in his hand.

"Where are they?!" Hyotai bellowed. "I know you are harboring them somewhere in here."

"Hey Gem-head! Looking for us?" Sonic called out. "Why don't you pick on someone else instead?"

"Heh, you should have stayed in hiding, because I won't just pick on you, I will pick you apart as well." Hyotai told them. "I owe you payback for escaping back there in our last fight."

Mario, Sonic, and Luigi were prepared to fight Hyotai, but they realized they had to get out of the cave before it turned into a desolate wasteland of a battlefield.

"Chief, we'll lead him out of here." Sonic reassured the Chief. "Thanks for your all your aid and knowledge. Hopefully we will meet again."

"You are welcome, Now, get that thug out of my people's home!" Ugling told them with a slight lacing of imperativeness in his voice. He then rushed to the scene to direct tribesmen out of the area.

"Let's-a go beat this guy-a up!" Mario added.

As they said that both the Mario brothers and Sonic began to speed out of the tunnel guiding the crystal block-head out of the tribe's home.

"Trying to pull a fast one on me again? Not on my watch!" Hyotai roared as he gave chase.

They dashed out of the cave and along the side of a nearby lake until the came to a hilly clearing. They turned to face their enemy, standing their ground against him. Hyotai was quick to find them as he was in hot pursuit.

"You shall die here, and the rings will become mine." Hyotai stated as he blasted his full power. From it's current position his frame pushed off and ran at Sonic and company. They moved as quickly as they could, both Luigi and Mario doing back flips as they jumped. This was followed by them hopping forwards and propelling themselves from the ground at Hyotai's face. With their legs extended, they were ready to slam their feet into him.

Hyotai raised both of his arms and blocked the attacks. As their kicks impacted a sound emanated that represented the pure power of Hyotai. Just him blocking was enough to push back the plumbers and send them flying. As they were in the air Hyotai ran at them with such speeds that it seemed as though he just vanished completely for a split second. His body then appeared behind the plumbers facing away from them.

Locking his elbows into a karate stance, he then thrusted at the incoming brother's backs. Both of them felt the nerves in their spines burn with sharp pain upon the impact. He then quickly towards them and wrapped his hands around both of their necks, and ascend high into the air. Sonic knew that he had to do something and he had to do it fast.

Thinking fast he bolted into the air quickly. He came head fist at Hyotai, and as he got closer he started to curl his frame into a spin wheel formation. The blue ball that was now Sonic smashed into the crystal beast's body. Upon impact Hyotai relinquished the Mario brothers. The plumbers then fell to the ground. From the quick glance he got of them they appeared to be unconscious.

**As always, remember to give reviews on anything grammatical and anything relating to how you feel about the plot. If you like the story, tell your friends about it, spread the word. I want to get a lot of input from various sources.**


	3. Avenging Knights of Discord

**Author's Note (10/21/2012): I do like this chapter a bunch, mostly because I love a good organization. Especially organizations with groups of people who all have very special talents and abilities of the magical sort. Well, Not really magical, but mystic powers, and strange abilities that make them incredibly dangerous. Anywho, This chapter seems to be fairly clean of errors. Just so I don't confuse people with the change, I changed the name of the group from "Discordial Avengers" to "Avenging Knights of Discord" because "Discordial Avengers" sounded a bit weird. I've been told by multiple people this so I decided to change it. **

"Oh no! They won't survive a fall from this height!" Sonic stammered.

"Neither will you!" Hyotai said angrily as he charged a ball of energy in his palms.

Sonic quickly rushed to the aid of his descending pals. With speeds that were faster than he ever went before, he was flying so fast the barrier of sound was wrapping around his frame. The ducts of his eyes had air rushing around them so much that tears formed unintentionally. Hyotai went after him immediately while charging energy still, But the hedgehog's determination pushed his speeds to an all new record. The sound barrier broke and the ringing of his achievement tried to catch up with him. He came close to the ground and then moved himself to be parallel with the ground. Stopping just under the two mustached heroes, catching them with not a second to spare. Both of the males woke up upon being rescued by the hedgehog.

"Shoo that was a close one dudes." Sonic said while exhaling a sigh of relief.

"Prepare to be assimilated!" Hyotai raged while firing the now car sized sphere at the heroes.

When the orb flew from his hands it shifted it's form into that of a beam shape. Sonic's maneuver had exhausted him and he couldn't react to the incoming energy barreling towards them. All they could do was watch as the beam came crashing into them. All three males were hit with a catastrophic amount of energy, the results of this attack could be felt pulsating in the form of pain inside of their bodies. The devastation around them was also an adequate measure of the sheer chaos of the beam. A crater with a radius of approximately 150 feet was where the battered heroes laid in now.

Hyotai drifted back on to the surface of the planet and then stepped down into the crater. Sonic was bruised beyond belief, and had cuts all over his body. The plumbers were in no better shape, and were rendered unconscious once more. Barely able to move, Sonic's left eye had a slash right above the upper eye lid and wouldn't open, not to mention that his energy had nearly been drained. Blood trailed down that wound and covered the left side of his face in a crimson color. Hyotai came closer and closer to the heroes. This seemed to be it for them all, no one was there to save them, they were all down for the count and every last shred of hope was quickly vanishing like dust in the wind.

"Where is your power now?!" Hyotai said as he began to laugh. "Like I said before, You will give me the rings, whether you want to or not!"

Sonic had nothing to say to him, he just grinded his teeth while looking at Hyotai with rage. It was then at that moment that his ring began to glow, and not only his ring, but also Mario's ring. He felt as if the rings were calling to each other. The glowing became brighter with each passing second until reaching a peak of shining light. Out of this radiance a crystal started to descend.

It floated downwards until being in front of Sonic's face. It glinted and sparkled and a strange feeling soon flooded all over Sonic's senses. He grabbed the crystal without even thinking and what happened next shocked both Sonic and Hyotai.

"What the hell?! What is going on?!" Hyotai gasped as he watched Sonic begin to transform.

The fur of the hedgehog turned into a goldenrod yellow and an aura of pure power wrapped around his frame. His wounds and bruises were all gone as well. There were also some additional equipment that appeared. On his left shoulder was a piece of armor with a crystal gem embedded in the middle of it. Sonic's eyes burned with rage as he slowly opened both of them and locked them with Hyotai's.

"You will pay for hurting my friends!" Sonic stated boldly as he disappeared that moment.

Time slowed down for Hyotai. Sonic was faster in this form, he also felt more powerful too. He was behind Hyotai in mere seconds, and he slammed his fist into the crystal beast's back. Kicking a foot at him, he watched as the power from his leg sent Hyotai soaring into the sky. The hedgehog didn't even stop to watch either, and bolted instantaneously behind the creature again. He stopped him with just his palm, and then unleashed a multitude of fists on to Hyotai's frame. The flurry of punches then came to a conclusion and began a new wave of round house kicks to the face and finally to finish it all off he did a flip kick. This last attack of his sent Hyotai ascending into the sky. Sonic made haste towards a position in the sky that the crystal beast was directly heading for.

Once Hyotai had reached to where the hedgehog was now at, Sonic grabbed at his frame. The moment he grabbed him Hyotai had instantly stopped. The next thing Sonic did was start descending down back to earth. Both of them now spiraled down towards the ground with horrifying speeds. At the last minute Sonic let go of Hyotai's body and let him crash into the ground with a tremendously explosive force. A cloud of dust billowed out of the area that the crystal monster slammed into. Hyotai couldn't even believe it, He was no match for the hedgehog.

Mario and Luigi were just now waking up. Their eyes had opened up just in time to witness the take down of Hyotai. Then the direction of their view was on that of Sonic. The hedgehog came down and landed on the earth right beside them. The plumbers were invigorated to see their ally in such a state. They could feel the power emanating from his frame. Just then all three of them prepared for more fighting as the smoke cleared. Hyotai was clambering out of the hole that he was sent into. He stood up as he made it out and then stepped forwards a bit before collapsing on to the dirt.

"Such power... " Hyotai stated before blacking out.

"That will teach him... " Sonic said as the creature seemed to be out for the count.

Thats when something appeared from above the mountains, It was a ship like no other. This machine looked built for battle and was humongous. When it had reached a very close distance to the crater it had come to a halting stop. On top of it's deck were ten mini turrets, followed by five medium sized turrets, and to top it off, there was one large turret that didn't even look like a cannon. It had a face painted on it with the characters 渦中(kachuu) also written on it with red paint. On the belly of the ship were also many turrets, along with a deck that was attached by metal pillars that connected to the main ship. This deck seemed to be a storing section for many vehicles and ammunition. There were also many windows on the hull of the ship to indicate that there was a vast number of crew members on board.

Something told Sonic and company that this ship had people on it who were allies to Hyotai, and that they were about to meet them. Their suspicions held some truth to them as from the tip of the top deck came three people flying down towards the crater. They landed near the spot that Hyotai collapsed at. The three suspicious people that were now there, all had symbols on their bodies just as Hyotai did. The first one was a male who appeared to be shrouded in a brown cloak. His face was hidden and the only other clothing he wore was some shorts, boots, and gloves. The color of all his clothing aside from his cloak was black. Each article of clothing also bore the symbol 炎(honoo - Flame).

A somewhat roboticized male stood next to this man. His frame was almost like that of a skeletal one. On his chest was composition of many tubes and round spheres that acted like sockets for the tubes to connect to. The left arm was connected also by tubes to a large sphere like socket that acted as his shoulders. A sword was at the end of the tubes and looked to be powered by an electrical type of energy. His right arm was no different than his left arm except that he had a cannon equipped instead of a blade. A helmet like shape was what his head looked like, and it seemed to have energy flow through it as well. On top of his head were two ear-like attenas. The connection of his head to his chest was done so through an electrical energy. The symbol 雷(rai - Thunder) was carved directly into the center of his forehead.

The third of the new people to arrive on the scene was a female. Her hair was a bit chaotic, as it curled in all sorts of directions. Two sections of her hair were bangs that hung in her face a bit. The hair color of hers was also a hue of dark purple, and this was paired with two golden eyes. On her back was a large sword that seemed to be in the shape of an elongated triangle that attached to a hilt. Along the edges of this blade were many saw-like teeth and from the looks of it they were sharper than a diamond blade.

An otherworldly aura seem to wrap around this weapon of hers as well. She wore skimpy clothing that represented an Amazonian feel to them. This included one purple bra, a loin cloth that was also purple with a golden embroidery, and gloves of purple as well. On each one of these pieces of clothing was the symbol 暗(kura - Dark) written in black. She was currently kneeling beside Hyotai and tending to his wounds. The first male that had appeared started to speak.

"Well, It would seem that Hyotai was not enough, I miscalculated. I thought this would be a mission that even he could do." The cloaked individual stated. "Do not be fooled though, the only reason you are spared is because the health of the members of my group is important to me. In any other case, you would be dead right now."

"Who are you guys? Why do you seek the rings?" Sonic began asking fiercely with bitter rage boiling inside of him.

"In due time you will know the answers to those questions. I can tell you just this to sate your curiosity, we are the Avenging Knights of Discord. Our mission, Top secret. It is of no concern to you what our motives are, but do know this, we will retrieve those rings." Honootai replied. "I do hope you bear us no ill will though, we are only trying to survive in a world where it is necessary to do so."

Sonic was hesitant to start a fight with this guy. He could feel one-hundred times the power that Hyotai had seeping from Honootai's frame. He was so calm, collective, and had a a demeanor about him that made him feel so uneasy. He was shaking and he knew it was because whatever this guy could do made him fear him so much. Mario and Luigi could feel it as well, all of them felt it. They all knew that this guy was not someone they wanted to engage right now, and the fact that Honootai was sparing them, was as much a relief as it was odd.

"Farewell then, 'Heroes'." Honootai stated as they all ascended into the sky with Hyotai on the female's shoulders. When the Avenging Knights of Discord had reached their ship and were all safely aboard, the ship soon departed. This left the heroes in a state of shock and exhaustion.

**As always, please send reviews if you find any errors, and remember to review the plot as well. Also, if you like the story enough, tell your friends about it. I desire the extra input from various other sources.**


	4. Great Wall of Volüg

**Author's Note (10/21/2012): Another chapter that I personally feel is pretty well written. This one had a few sentences that I really think turned out well. It's also fairly clean of grammar errors, and spelling mistakes. Enjoy! :)**

Sonic and the Mario brother's faces sweltered in a wave of exhaustion. Their eye lids battled fiercely to stay awake, but to no avail they were overcome by the depletion of all their energy and thus passed out on the spot. The blue hedgehog awoke in a maelstrom of thoughts, his ears being pierced by the sounds of a familiar voice. It was Amy's, he could tell by the high pitched noises bellowing from the distance. He rustled a bit before climbing to his feet and eying his surroundings. The landscape he was located in was a lone ledge hanging above a violent typhoon. Thunder crackled and Lighting whipped across the sky, its end point being pulled into the center of the destructive storm like a magnet. Fear unveiled its ugly head into the seat of Sonic's brain. Wind whirled around his fur in a fury of pure rage. His ear drums felt like they would burst at any second.

Amy's voice still called out to him clearly throughout all the catastrophic events passing him. Behind him the ledge formed into the base of a land mass. The only objects that met with eyes in that direction were a tree that stood towering at what seemed to be over twenty stories tall. Beside the tree was a strange pedestal with a bowl of liquid perched atop it's flat surface. A vortex distorted the dimensional fabrics of space and time near these two objects, and a faint image of Amy was vaguely seen within it. From what Sonic could discern she was in dire need of help. Her voice called out to her friend once more before she became invisible to him. The moment she was gone the place Sonic was in began to undergo a change. Everything was disappearing right before him and falling into the void of the maelstrom.

The rocks and dirt crumbling and vanishing with alarming speed just made him go into a state of shock. He backed himself up to the very edge of the ledge on instinct alone. His chest contracted rapidly as he sought for air. It was as if the fear and confusion he was suffering from was causing him to be short of oxygen. He panicked when the crumbling ground gave out from under his feet. Plummeting into the spiraling whirlwind of doom, he let out a terrified scream. He closed his eyes and wished for it all to just go away. The next moment he was struggling in a battle for his life with a woolen snake, or so he assumed. Sonic regained perception to his surroundings. His body was sweating, his hands were clammy, and he hurt from head to toe. Tangled up around his frame was the terrifying beast he thought he was battling just seconds ago.

"I see you have finally awoken from your slumber" A young voice said.

Sonic's eyes scanned around and discovered betwixt some tents and supplies was a mysterious man clad in all-sorts of crystallized armor. He sat cross-legged with his hands held together within his sleeves. In front of him was a fire burning strongly. Sonic then realized that he had been with the Mario brothers' last time he was conscious.

"Where are my friends?" Sonic said with a bit of worry laced in his voice.

"Calm thyself young one. Your friends are resting peacefully in the two tents behind me." The mysterious man replied to the frantic hedgehog's question. "Now, how about you tell me why you were lying unconscious in the middle of large craters in crystal jungle?"

Sonic's lungs exasperated a sigh of relief upon finding out his friends were okay. He then plopped himself down beside the fire and started to tell tale of him and the Mario brother's encounter with the Avenging Knights of Discord. Sonic also informed him on the strange rings they obtained and how they were now seeking for ways to return to their own worlds.

"Such a riveting and suspenseful story." The man responded. "Your struggle is a desperate one indeed and I am quite intrigued by it. May I ask?"

"Ask what?" Sonic began to question.

"I'd like to join you on your quest." He replied. "The name is Aragonite, nomad of this beautiful planet."

"Huh? But why? That's strange of you to ask to join us, when you know nothing more of our struggle than what I have told you." Sonic was blunt about it, but he was speaking the truth. "Not only that, You barely just met me, and I am pretty sure you have not had the chance to speak with Mario and Luigi either."

"It's strange to me also, part of me finds your quest intriguing enough just to join out of sheer curiosity and for the adventure that could come from it." Aragonite began telling him. "Somewhere deep in my soul too, I hear a voice compelling me to join with you, It's as if it knows something I don't and desires that I join you. I think some call this intuition or perhaps a premonition?"

"It will be dangerous though, are you prepared to face certain death? We have some deadly foes after us." Sonic stated not wanting innocent people to get caught up in their journey.

"Heh, I have been toe to toe with death before, I welcome the challenge." Aragonite replied with an ambitious smile.

Mario and Luigi both woke up just seconds after the discourse had ended. Mario jumped up from under his cover and yelled "Yahoo! I-a feel great!". He felt fresh and rejuvenated. This was the same case for his brother, Luigi, who had gotten up to stretch his legs too. Both of their eyes soon reached a mutual focal point flickering across the features of this new and mysterious individual that was entertaining Sonic in a bit of small banter. Sonic relayed to them what they missed out on whilst they had slumbered amongst the confines of the small tents. He also formally introduced them to the man who placed a bit of curiosity inside their heads. Once everyone was fully aware of the weight that now rest on their shoulders, all that remained left to accomplish was coordinate a plan of action. Mario inquired to Aragonite as to the whereabouts of the Iron Dune Hill's that the chief had mentioned to them.

"Ah yes, The Iron Dune Hills', I know a particularly special route for easy transit to that place. It shan't take more than ten minutes to reach our destination." Aragonite answered the quizzical Italian's inquiry.

Luigi's mind drifted into a field of imaginative creatures that could possibly be waiting for them along the way, and at once he felt despair and fear coil it's malicious tentacles around his brain. A tight grasp of torment stricken upon him caused the taller Italian to curl into the fetal position and rattle about on the ground scared out of his wits.

"I can assure you that whatever lies ahead of us in that sea of Iron and grains of sand wouldn't get the chance to render the flesh from our bones." Aragonite attempted to soothe the plumber's exaggerated fears. "I pity what creature should come into contact with us and expect to come out of a bout alive."

Luigi's fear level shot down to a stone cold low, the feeling of a five –ton weight pulling into a rock bottom state of crippling terror. He didn't want to die, especially with so many tasks having yet to be finished.

"I have the faint feeling that your companion might be prone to a case of low-bravery." Aragonite turned to Mario and said softly.

Mario gave him a nod in response to the statement and then looked over at the chagrin display his brother was performing for them all. The only action he could take was to sigh is dismay.

"I'm going to hit the hay guys we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Sonic said as he curled his frame under one of the comfortable blankets and rested by the fire.

"A most wise idea my new friend." Aragonite said in response to the hedgehog's suggestion.

Mario agreed with a "Le pickle" and him along with Luigi soon drifted off into a slumber just like the rest of the party. Sonic dreamed of Amy once again. This time she was trapped inside of a tower of some sort and no matter what Sonic could possibly think of doing to reach the structure, it all ended up in failure. Amy's shrill screams sounded in a manner that equated with being in pain. He desperately hastened himself in every possible way to come to his friend, his determination never faltering and in fact becoming stronger with each sound of her voice passing by his ears.

The continuation of his attempts came to a halt when he no longer heard her screams. The world around him was drenched in nothing but a color of red, and at the very instance that his eyes befell this sight he knew that his mission had ended in failure. Before he had a second chance to think he awoke with beads of sweat lining the brow of his forehead. This was the second time such a fright was given to him by the same nightmare.

He had not a single clue as to its hidden meaning, but something commanded in him great worry about the well-being of Amy. It was now morning for the party, Who at once began to disassemble camp and prepare for their long journey to the Iron Dune Hills. From the rumors Aragonite had told them, this dessert was a combination of organic metal and sand. It was confusing for the heroes to understand fully at this point because it was a strange concept. He led them through a winding trail that passed many crystal shrubberies and over a creek.

The group came to a halt when they reached a towering wall with huge columns that lay betwixt the wall and a great iron gate.

"The Great Wall of Volüg." Aragonite stated as he moved closer to the gate. "It is what divides the Iron Dunes from the Crystal Tropics."

Aragonite inspected the iron gate and concluded that it was immobile. Only a force that wielded immense power could even hope to open the gate. Mario then spotted something that was a familiar sight to him and his brother. It was a pipe that caught his eye. This pipe was jutting out of one of the connecting columns. He bounced up and down and told the group of his discovery.

"Good work! We can use the pipe system to reach the other side of this wall and onwards to the dunes." Sonic said with excitement brimming within his voice.

"We must proceed with caution my friends. these are the sewers of the Ruby Serpent Tortoise." Aragonite said after carefully translating an inscription on the pipe.

Luigi once again had a vision of horrible creatures within the pipe system and pictured what a serpent tortoise could possibly look like and nearly screamed out loud in fear.

"Your brother isn't far from the truth about this one Mario. I fear that deep within the bowels of this sewer, if I have heard correctly from tales, lives a frightening creature." Aragonite continued. "Half tortoise, Half serpent, A shell completely encased in a ruby shell, and a hunger for the flesh of anything living and brave enough to traverse the deepest and darkest parts of this sewage system."

Mario told them that there was nothing that they had to be worried about. Mario's sense of bravery struck Aragonite as a polar opposite from that of his brother's sense of fright. After this discussion had transpired Sonic looked towards the pipe and then glanced back at the group.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sonic stated as he soon zipped into the pipe, full of adventure.

Aragonite followed the excited hedgehog as did Mario. Luigi was still frozen in fear on the ground. Mario popped out his head out of the pipe and then called out to his brother. "Luigi!", but he remained oblivious to the sound of his name.

"Luigi! Let's-a Go!" Mario said to him once more.

Mario then got a bit agitated at his brother's obvious ignorance to his voice and then walked over to Luigi. He bonked him straight on the noggin and then began dragging him into the sewer system. When the group entered into the pipe the initial area had an abundance of vines. It was also dark, damp, and smelt horrible. They went a small distance in the pitch blackness before Mario lit up a fire ball in his hand and gave light to the pipe maze. It was a bit late however as Aragonite walked right over a path that traveled diagonally downwards. The moment that he fell, Sonic and company jumped down after him. Sliding down the pipes brought them to another long path. This tunnel had its floor covered in a bit of water.

More vines grew in all sorts of crooks and crannies. When everyone was accounted for and each person gained composure the whole pipe system shook. A vehement roar trailed from an unknown source, echoing from what seemed like all possible directions. Our heroes tensed up, prepared for a fight. The grotesque sounds of a monster soon dissipated into silence. Aragonite once again lead the group through the horrid sewers, taking caution with each one of his steps. Mario remained right behind him and had in his palms yet another fire-ball producing light for the whole group, both the rear and the front sides. Their feet shuffled on through the water creating a sloshing sound that softly drifted over their ears and made a sound for other creatures to hear as well. Passing by one upper pipe way they then stopped at a second one.

"It's blocked and even if we could open it up…. Look at that!" Sonic called to his allies. "There are rocks on top of that grated cover!"

**As always, please leave reviews for errors and your opinion on the plot. If you like the story enough tell your friends about it, I desire input from various sources.**


	5. Dance of The Tortoise

**Author's Note (10/21/2012): I really think this Chapter is all about the fight, so it seems to have a ton of somewhat lengthy paragraphs. I tried to split them up to make it not seem like many walls of text. I hope you enjoy. :)**

"Hey you, Tortoise brains, you better move!" Sonic yelled at the over grown lizard. "We need to get through here!"

The serpent responded to the hedgehog's yelling by lowering it's skull and pulling back for a skull bash. With not even a blink from anyone's eye lids the creature struck the first blow. Slamming it's head into the now bewildered Sonic's frame, he was crushed against the wall. It's tail whipped behind Mario and snatched both him and Luigi in a coiling bind. Sonic was barely able to move after having been so thoroughly rammed into the stone, and felt literally crippled afterwards. He struggled with just standing, and with a hazy, unfocused vision he watched as the serpent retracted it's skull from connecting with Sonic's body.

Just as the beast was retreating it's head, Sonic mustered up some strength merely from sheer willpower. His frame curled into a spin-dash formation and swiftly accelerated in place. Upon releasing himself from that spot, his frame's momentum traveled in the direction of the creature's jaws. He managed to strike the beast square right in the teeth of the beast, cracking a tooth at the moment of collision.

Horrid hissing was the response he got for his assault on the creatures dentures. The blue hedgehog, having successfully completed his attack, bounced back to the ground. Mario and Luigi fell from the clutches of the serpents coiling. Catching his brother in mid-air, Mario proceeded to place him in the tunnel they had just climbed out of earlier. The mustached plumber then joined at Aragonite's side and then prepared to launch their attack against the tortoise serpent. Seconds passed for what felt like an eternity of both their enemy and them staring one another down. A whim of a moment sparked in both Mario and his companion to begin the fight. Launching their frames towards the creature they aimed directly for it's throat.

To their disbelief the tortoise was already one step ahead of their plan, having a charged beam rapidly emit from it's maw towards their incoming momentum. Mario swiftly dodged to the side by throwing his momentum into it to which caused him to barely avoid being fried by the beam of energy. Aragonite, on the other hand, did not receive the same luck. Concentrated chi crashed right into his shoulder, causing him to descend with a sputtering sound of pain emanating from his vocal chords. A thud followed after him as he collided with the ground, cracks formed around his landing site to indicate just exactly where he impacted.

This was but a mere set back and not to be the least of their concerns as the tortoise then retracted it's soft body within it's shell. This was followed by rapid spinning that of which had momentum gaining with each increasingly deadly spin. The speed began to blurr out any detailed images of the shell itself and soon it came directly at the group. With not a single second of leeway given to it's prey, the thing rammed it's ruby covered shell at the closest hero.

"Move! Don't let it hit you!" Aragonite yelled in vain as everyone was unable to avoid the massive inbound shell that swiftly spun it's way towards them with malicious intent.

Their bodies were tossed about like a salad, it was just too brutal for them. A moment of agony later and the attack had ceased. Everyone had bruises and cuts that slowly oozed out small rivers of blood on to their flesh. Not only did this batter them up quite a bit, but also they were now further apart from one another. The beast was centered in the room, it's body slithering on out of it's safe shell. In it's new position it was able to keep watch on all of it's new prey and be the one in control of the situation. Mario quickly decides to fling fireballs at the creature, this is unfortunately countered by the beast, who merely opens it's jaws and consumes the balls of flame. Once more it began to charge energy from it's mouth, the particles of chi gathering at a focal point that floated just above the creatures tongue.

The thing that made this attack more different than all of his previous ones was the next thing that happened. The heroes watched in horror as the compacted energy began spewing forth a barrage of beams down at them. Sonic and Mario managed to avoid the beams with some rather tricky maneuvering. Aragonite faced more of the same bad luck and had one strike one of his legs, or so it was thought to be bad luck. This turned out to be a strategy by Aragonite in which he deflected the beam back at the creature's face. This was to be something the creature was not expecting and so it was a successful hit, and had dazed the tortoise a bit.

"Here I go nows my chance." Sonic said spinning up for a rather devastating spin dash. He released himself at the slithering beast. "Take this!"

The snake had enough focus to swat Sonic away using his tail with relative ease. This was to mean a world of pain for the hedgehog who soon crashed into the ground. Upon where his body met with the pavement, cracks spawned. In response to their allies sudden failed assault, both Mario and Aragonite faced the snake and moved to clash with the serpent. This retaliation was met with an answer that was in the shape of the serpent's own tail whipping swiftly at them. For mere seconds both the creature's tail and the heroes stared each other down in mid-air.

"Ready Mario?" Aragonite asked his friend.

"I am-a ready! Let's-a go!" Mario replied ready to give it his all.

The snake bat his tail at them to break the moment that seemed frozen in time, it's strikes were filled with expert precision and incredible speed. Both of them were ready and matched it's tail head to head. A scene of fist flurrying unveiled before the near unconscious hedgehog.

"Get'em guys don't let that shell slitherer get the better of us!" Sonic cheered on for his combating friends.

In a sudden moment of bad timing, the beast manages to one-up both of the heroes, and slams them away from it's frame. Quickly following it's lucky break, it began to perform yet another rapid spin attack. Once again everyone was caught up in the vehement torrent of twirling shell and lay bruised and beaten upon the ground. This last attack left everyone on the brink of absolute exhaustion and the limits of pain. When the dust settled from this, the beast once again made itself present in front of it's prey. Charging energy for what it thought would be it's final attack, it then scattered a rain storm of beams at the already crippled group.

Mario, Sonic, and Aragonite all felt the pain of energy singing their flesh and showering the ground with their blood. It was at this time that Mario thanked whatever higher being their was that his brother was in the safety of the hall right before this room, unable to partake in this masquerade of pain. What happened next was more frightening then the thought of death itself. The snake's jaws unhinged whilst it's ruby encased shell emitted a strange glow. queer chains with a spectral aura lacing their physical entities crawled out from within the serpent's belly.

"Mama-mia, What the hell is-a that!?" Mario exclaimed with a look of dismay on his face and slight disbelief that he was actually seeing something like this happen.

"Mama-mia is right my friend..." Aragonite agreed with the mustached plumber as he was at a loss for any other words to say. He watched the unfurling madness that ensued from the very bowels of this serpent tortoise.

The chains slid out and sought out the heroes on the ground, or what they really were thought to be right now, snacks for the serpent. They felt both wet and slimy, and the very moment that these spectral chains gripped the heroes' frames they could feel energy draining from them.

"Ugh my energy... Mario... I feel so tired... " Sonic said while quickly succumbing to increasing amounts of fatigue.

When the energy of it's prey felt weak enough, the chains soon evaporated. Sonic was able to still muster a bit of energy to stand up, but this was short lived as the snake flicked it's tail into action against this. With a quick swishing sound, the snake wrapped it's tail around Sonic's ankle and began to life him up off the ground.

"Hey... What the heck?!... Let me down snake breath!..." Sonic yelled while trying to struggle free with what little strength he had left.

Retracting it's tail back the snake suddenly whipped Sonic across the room. Propelled through the air, Sonic shot towards the other side, his destination was another wall. The hedgehog's body impacted the wall and he stuck there for a few seconds. Afterwards he started to descend to the ground. This was too much for Sonic, and the results of this made him unconscious and a large wound was above his brow and currently leaking blood and staining his fur.

"Sonic!... No!..." Aragonite called out to the wounded friend of his.

The tortoise was growing weary of watching his prey move around so much and also was irritated by the small voices of theirs. Quickly, it performed another shell retraction move, and jumped up into the air. It had arced at just the right angle to where he would descend just right over Aragonite's frame. Aragonite viewed with widened and fear intoxicated eyes as the beast performed a body slam on his frame, pushing the full force of his weight and momentum down into him, instantly knocking him out.

Mario was the only one left now. He still couldn't move as well, and wondered if this was going to be the end for him and his companions. The serpent was now heading his way with the intent to clean up this mess once and for all and enjoy a tasty meal. One moment later, and Mario was wrapped in the coils of the serpent being crushed. Mario responded with a yell of pain and it was at that precise moment that something began emitting a light.

It was the ring he had on him and it was shining brighter than any super star he had ever laid eyes upon. Just as the snake began unhinging it's jaws and leaning in to start snacking, the glow vanished. The snakes jaws tried to clamp down on what it thought to have been it's finally finished prey, but to no avail they would not shut. A force was preventing them from accomplishing this simple muscle command.

"Yahoo! It's-a my lucky day!" Mario had exclaimed just when the beast's jaws were pried open by himself.

Standing there with the muscular upper-jaw lifted up, Mario retained a new radiance about him. He rolled out of the snakes mouth swiftly and hopped to the ground safely. Turning to face the serpent he realized that his body looked exceptionally better than it had looked moments ago when he faced near certain death. Even his clothes looked as if they were freshly bought and cleaned. Not only that, but they were different styled clothes too. The plumbers cap and shirt were all white now, and as for his overalls, they were a bright red. With a big stare down between him and the creature, he smiled.

"This is-a going to be-a easy!" he said invigorated with intense levels of newly acquired energy that he could feel coursing through his veins.

As Mario jumped towards the serpent, he began to easily avoid every swat of the beast's tail that came at him. He somersaulted a bit in mid-air and then aimed his skull directly for the creature's chest, and slamming his head precisely at this exact location. The snake was greatly effected by this and let out a "Hissssssss" sound in response. Mario gave the creature an upper-cut to the jaw, and the punch had so much power in it that the creature couldn't help but be skyrocketed into the air. Instantly the serpent retracted into it's shell instinctively to protect itself. As the tortoise ascended, Mario insisted on showing off his insane amounts of speed.

In fact his bodily movements had risen to a speed that was nearly invisible to the naked eye, and because of this, he seemed to be instantly traversing to various other regions in the room. He waited until the exact moment where the creature was just where he wanted him. Not only did he perform a round kick to it's shell but he then sent the beast into a pinball type course, using his speed to control the trajectory of the beast. Mario played this game until him and the shell met within the center of the room. Pulling out his hammer he clashed with the shell, and stopped it, and in that split-second afterwards he did a back flip-kick pushing the shell higher into the air.

Once he accomplished this he sped quickly to a position that was right above where the shell would soon be. As soon as the shell arrived at it's predicted spot, Mario landed on it, and proceeded to perform a spin-drill upon the ruby surface of the shell. Doing this caused both him and the shell to rapidly descend to the ground. His hands were parallel with the ground and as he did such, fireballs rained down in a spiral manner crashing down right into the gemmed shell.

Just as the creature crashed into the ground, the plumber jumped back up, pulling his hammer out once more. When he reached his peak he then did a few more somersaults with his hammer raised up and then came back down, his target being the tortoise. His hammer gained momentum and he applied all his weight and power into the strike of this hammer, to which he soon delivered upon the shell of the creature when he came down.

"Yahoo!" He said with empowered strength lacing his voice.

It was at this exact time that he said this, that his hammer smashed into the creature's hard exterior. There was no time for the creature to react to the sudden blow of devastating power. The hammer had impacted with such speed and force that the shattering process jammed up the nerves that preserved energy inside. The rubies glowed brighter and brighter until finally the energy released itself and the shell completely shattered. This left the snakes body to dissipate into dust afterwards. The plumber's frame rapidly spun off from the impact point and landed softly in the vicinity of his allies, who were still injured greatly.

"Oh no! Let's-a go guys!" He tried to coax them into waking up.

Nevertheless they seemed to be out for the count at the moment. Bad luck seemed to still be lingering from Aragonite and slowly cursed Mario a bit too, as minutes after the defeat of the tortoise the very foundation of the sewage system began to shake. Stone slabs broke off from the ceiling and fell to the ground, cracks creped their way through the walls of the structures and loose rocks came tumbling as well. Mario's reaction time was now on a short clock, in fact the destruction of the room was coming too rapidly for even him to handle. At it's current rate they were all going to perish under the bellies of great big boulders and stones.

One descended right beside Sonic, which prompted Mario to push his legs to the extreme. Meeting the boulder with a fist, he smashed it into dust. It seemed hopeless as both entrances were already blocked off, and miraculously enough, Luigi managed to avoid being harmed that much, or so it seemed that way when he looked over his shoulder at his brother. A rock soon came crashing down on one of his legs.

Upon further inspection he realized that this room also had water leaking from the ceilings from other parts of the sewage system. This was really bad news for them, the rocks were bad enough but water would surely end them even more quickly. He thought that just defeating the creature would relinquish them from harm's way, but now he was on the verge of losing all hope. This feeling was thwarted when he and his allies were enveloped within a light.

When this light had faded, a sweltering but relieving heat pelted his face. Behind him stood the wall, which he saw upon looking, and in front of him was the dessert. They had made it over and that meant that they were closer to their next destination. Mario soon prepared a camp site for his allies to rest at, they needed it after all.

**As always, please review my story for any types of errors you may find, and to also review it for the plot, and what you think of the story thus far. Also, if you enjoy the story enough, please tell your friends about it, and have them read it. I desire input from various sources and much constructive criticism would be kindly appreciated. ;)**


	6. Iron Sand Dunes

The group stirred a bit, Mario was the first to actually stand up on his feet. Brushing sand off of his clothes, he examined the status of his allies. Luigi seemed to be waking up now, but Aragonite and Sonic were a different case as they remained unconscious. The sun was setting behind the gold-colored dunes and night was nearing. He knew he had to figure out some kind of plan for the night. Pondering this, he surveyed his surroundings and spotted a large patch of dense shrubbery in the distance.

"Luigi! Come and-a help me-a lift them up!" He exclaimed to his brother who sat up now and was rubbing at his temples.

"Alright!" Luigi quickly jumped up in order to fulfill Mario's request.

After hoisting their companions up, the brothers set forth towards this strange collection of greenery. When they reached the edge, they peered inside. Mario could see plenty of spots that were perfect for concealing them from danger. This specific spot was reminiscent of the jungle they had been in previously. Vines hung from the many of trees that were the same style as the crystal ones.

The thing that mostly struck Mario and his brother as odd was the obviously man-made camp site and hammock. There was also some food stored in a cranny by a tree stump that was hidden by rocks and moss that draped over the rocks. Having been exhausted and drained of energy, The plumbers shrugged it off like nothing and placed their friends down. The both of them remained on vigilant guard for the next two hours, eventually themselves falling into a deep and well deserved slumber.

The blazing afternoon sun woke Mario up, It's rays searing into his skin with it's focused glare. This reminded him of the times when he would encounter one of his more dangerous enemies, The Angry Sun. Memories of the mushroom kingdom made him feel homesick, but he knew he had a lot of work to do before he could return home and he didn't let it get to him.

His ears soon picked up the sound of a moving vehicle, and it was getting closer and closer to their hiding spot. Quickly waking Luigi he then hopped towards the edge of the vegetation to investigate the sound's origin.

Right outside of their location was a transportation device of some sort. It was light orange colored and had tracks just like that of a tank. A perplexed expression consumed Mario's face as he tried to discern if it was friend or foe. When the tank came to a halt it was just right next to the edge of the hideout of theirs. A compartment on the vehicle released steam alongside the sand. Near the top of the vehicle a door swung open upwards. Out popped a two-tailed creature who's color's consisted of orange fur with white on his belly and tail tips. The sun reflected the pools of his sky-blue colored eyes as he looked up at the clouds smiling.

Relief came over both Mario and his brother and at once he didn't even think anymore about this person being a threat to them or not. This is due to the fact that the man that stood upon that machine was none other than a good friend of theirs. They both shuffled out of the small shrubbery to greet him.

"It's-a me Mario and-a my brother Luigi, Tails!" Mario shouted with happiness lacing the chords of his voice.

"Mario, Luigi, What are you guys doing here?!" Tails responded to them quizzically.

After exchanging pleasantries, Mario began to explain their situation. Tails was surprised at what they had been through and was also happy to hear Sonic was well and actually here and with them.

"Sonic is here?! I had worried about where he had gone to..." Tails told them.

During their conversation Luigi was inspecting the transportation device that Tails was riding in previously. Mario also happened to notice that Tails was wearing a ring just like the ones that Aragonite and Sonic had.  
"You enjoy it? It's created by this ring I found." Tails sated Luigi's curiosity.

"You-a have a ring?!" Mario quickly asked Tails.

"Yes I found it when I first arrived in this world." Tails answered him and then continued to speak. "I also have some what of a theory for how we got here."

Just as he was about to relay his supposition, Sonic walked out of the shrubbery, A groan indicated his remaining grogginess from yesterday's encounter.  
Rubbing and adjusting his eyes to the dessert sun, Sonic blinked in disbelief when he saw Tails. His feet took him directly over to the group and he smiled big, happy to see his companion from Mobius here.

"Haha Tails, I am so happy to see you, I thought I'd never see you again." Sonic said, practically tackling the orange-furred Tails over.

"Sonic! I'm glad you are okay, we all got worried when you vanished all of a sudden." Tails replied to the overly-excited hedgehog.

"How did you even get here in the first place Tails?" Sonic inquired of his friend.

"Well, I have a theory for that but I' m not one-hundred percent sure about what I have come up with." Tails began to explain to them. "To begin though, I was just examining some Mobius ruins for any traces of where you had gone to, when a strange rock landed right next to my side.

"A rock? The same thing happened to me, I was just running around when I encountered one." Sonic chimed in.

"Really?!, That is very intriguing, it may be linked in some way or another." Tails told him. "When the rock landed beside me, it opened up and swallowed me up, and I take it the same thing befell you as well Sonic?"

Sonic nodded in response to his question and then let go of his friend after realizing he was gripping him just a bit too much. Adjust his ring, Tails soon deconstructed his machine into raw energy that was quickly absorbed by the ring.

"Something in my gut is starting to give me the hunch that we weren't just sent here by chance or on accident. It's as if there is some power out there that called us here, and I don't know why, but I feel like it's an ominous sort of power." Tails hypothesized.

"Me and-a Luigi were sent the-a same way!" Mario put in his two cents to the conversation. "We-a were just-a having a nice little afternoon-a nap when it-a happened!"

"It was-a sooooo scary!" Luigi said shivering at the memory of it.

"Whatever it may be it seems as though we were strung into something bigger than we can even imagine, these rings are proof of that." Tails concluded after noticing that each one of the people in the group was wearing a ring. "The reason for the rings is that people want them. I encountered some mysterious beings earlier that wanted to take mine away from me."

"You-a too?" Mario asked wondering about his encounter. "Did they-a happen to be-a called the Discordial Avengers?"

"I never got a name out of them, but they were gruesome creatures, I couldn't tell you what kind of species they were." Tails said. "I can only say this though, Their bodies were horridly deformed."

"That is-a strange, they-a don't sound like-a the guys we-a faced Mario." Luigi told Mario.

"You are-a right Luigi." Mario said as he faced Tails again. "We have-a fought a big organization that-a wants the rings as-a well."

"Oh? It seems this world has a lot more people after these things than I had originally thought." Tails responded. "Let me tell you about the things I encountered."

Tails had then begun describing the beasts he had fought with. Malevolent looking beings they were, Their heads protected by a bone skull cage helmet infused into their very skin. The flesh on their faces was melted and their arms were bent in a mantis-styled manner. From each finger grew a sickle like claw that pulsated and glowed with a red hue. Huge thick thighs extended from their waists and connected their legs to the main body.

Wrapped around the creatures chests were hauberks made of infused metals and solidified obsidian. Tails also described them having one limb that was detachable at the joints and was still connected by a bundled up tube of muscle. This allowed for the creatures to swing these limbs of theirs as mini chain sickles. The last detail that was revealed was the description of the tail, which was armored too and had equipped on it a solid ball of hardened bone and rock. If that wasn't bad enough, it was said that they could ignite this part of their body at will with flame.

The others listened intently as Tails told them stories of his battles.

"They were a tough bunch, but I managed to pull through with this ring." Tails triumphantly told them. "Something tells me they weren't just some low-band of miscreants either."

Just as tails was about to elaborate on this, an ear-piercing cry for help laced itself amongst the hot dessert wind. In the distance, betwixt the rubble of some ruins, a young child was running for her life. Her thing legs rapidly propelled her through the dessert terrain with ease, but whatever it was that pursued her, was faster.

Straight behind the child was a trailing cloud of sand that seemed to emanate from the ground. This wasn't the only one either, two more followed closely on both sides of the first one. As the child ran, her arms hung back in the opposite direction she was heading in, her feather hair whipped around with both her momentum and the dessert wind acting upon it. Her face displayed fear, but to anyone who had not seen one of her kind before, this would be very hard to discern.

The face of the child resembled that of a metallic mask that was a part of the body and not just a fashion statement of some sort. Another unique feature of this mask was the beak that served as the mouth for the child.

"A Nak'tol, I wondered when we would see them out here." Aragonite said while making his way out of the shrubbery. "Though I have no idea what is chasing the child."

"We-a have to save the child, She is-a in danger." Mario stated and then with a quick hop he headed off to assist.

Everyone was having the same idea Mario had and also went with him. The child suddenly tripped and face-planted into the sand. Even if she had skills traversing the dessert, she was still only a mere child. One dust cloud stopped abruptly right in front of the now cowering child, with a rumble of sand a creature emerged from the ground.

A worm like body made up of metal-infused rock with a center core that was a high-density compacted shell appeared before her. This core was covering up the very life force of the worm and looked to be near impossible to penetrate with most attacks.

Towering over the child about 20 feet, it made it's presence menacingly known to her as it produced a horrifying roar. Upon finishing, Mario stepped in front of the child protectively. He had a stare down with the new creature. His eyes sternly fixed on the worm, without even a flinching muscle within his body. He stood their calm and relaxed and with a determined look only a true hero could ever have.

"Let's-a go! You are-a gonna have to get through-a me first!" Mario proclaimed to the beast, as he launched an attack.

After his battle shout, Mario did a back-flip kick with the utmost precision. With no time to react the worm took a direct kick to the jaw. Plummeting to the ground, it yelped in pain, but quickly got back up with no signs of residual pain. Two other worms quickly joined their companion in the battle and together all three looked prepared for a smack-down.

"Mario, be careful, these beings aren't phased by any physical or special abilities in any spot but their core." Tails yelled out to him.

Energy soon resonated from this core that Tails spoke of as they began to rain metal shards Mario and the rest of his now arriving pals. A shard scratched the plumbers arm and caused a slivering trail of blood to ooze out. It soaked his shirt a bit, though the color of the fabric made it unnoticeable.

With swift dodging, Sonic came at the side of one worm slamming into it with a skull-bash. Just as Tails had previously said, the beast seemed unharmed. In response to Sonic's attack the, the worm slapped him away. Tails watched as his friend crashed into a sand dune.

"Thats it, play time is over." Tails said enraged at the sight of the beasts tossing them around like their play things.

When he said that he lifted his hand up raising it so that it was parallel to the ground. It was with the very same hand that soon began to make him glow.

"I'll give you a real show!" He proclaimed. "Mario, ready yourself to attack when the core resonates energy! That is when they are most vulnerable!" Tails informed the plumber as he prepared his attack.

At that very moment tails constructed himself a mecha and jumped right into it, manning the machine instantly. The tread like feet of the mecha were suited for the dessert, and when the mechanisms that made it move activated it zoomed through the sand with not a single problem.

Tails intercepted a beast that was about to unleash another storm of shards unto the field. As the core of the beast glowed, The mecha that Tails was operating threw it's fist into the shell like organ of the worm. Upon impact the creature let loose a malignant cry of desperation and then fell, the core pouring out the life force rapidly.

The sight of their companion being slain in combat was enough to make the other worms become very irate, and make them initiate their own counter strikes. One whipped it's tail at the Mecha's frame, and the other gorged it's mouth on to the fist of one arm. Each one resonated energy and prepared for a massive assault, but Mario was not about to let this pass. Moving with speed and much skill, he activated his ring, and charged a fireball into his palm. With a suddenly silent and still moment, his fireball left the vicinity of his palm and crashed into a core that was almost fully resonated with pure energy.

When it hit, the creature was done for. The fire melted away the entire center of that particular worm, and with luck it was the one that had tried to consume Tail's mecha's fist. Having that arm free, allowed for him to jump back, avoiding the last worm's tail attack.

Mario and Tails gave each other congratulatory nods as they witness the fall of yet another worm, but this became a mistake for them and an opportunity for the last worm. Just as they were looking away from the beast to look at each other, it had decided to whip it's tail at the both of them, in a sort of cleaving strike. They were not prepared for this ambush attack and suffered a knock back into nearby sand dunes.

As they were shaking off the daze-effect left over from the bulk of that tail attack, they beast seized another opportunity and began to charge a more concentrated beam of energy aimed at them. Sonic had removed himself from the dessert sand in time to see the beast's preparations. He responded to this by readying a spin-dash. When the creature was near finished with it's desired attack, Sonic let his body propel forwards. The impact of Sonic's spin-dash happened right at the same time the beam was released, but Sonic's collision with it sent the beam off just out of Mario and Tail's direction.

"Shoo, That was a close one, any second later and you guys would have been toasted." Sonic sighed in relief as he watched the worm fall and die.

The kid watching all of this was in a state of disbelief, her eyes brimming with sudden realization that she was still alive. She finally stood to her knees and then walked over to the travelers that had saved her life.

"Travelers, You have saved my life, for that you have my utmost gratitude. My name is Mi'Kotyana, It is a pleasure to meet you all" Mi'kotyana said to them, grateful for them saving her life.

"It's nothing!" Sonic replied, giving her a smile and a thumbs up. "We couldn't just watch a little girl be eaten alive by whatever those things were.

"That's-a right!" Mario added.

"Anyone else would have done the same as us!" Tails said as well.

"I would like to repay back your act of kindness, but alas I have nothing of value on me. You seem to be famished though, and are probably very thirsty. May I offer to take you back to my hometown Naza'rabar?" Mi'kotyana asked them.

"That would-a be very wonderful Mi'kotyana!" Mario answered her.

Mi'kotyana gave them all a smile, and as soon as the group had gathered together they all set off under the guidance of this new Nak'tol towards Naza'rabar. 


	7. City of Naza'rabar

**Author's Notes: This one took a bit longer than usual, but here it is. Most of my chapters will slowly be released so if you are following this story, please be patient. :)**

About twenty minutes later and the group led by Mi'kotyana arrived at the entrance to the city of Naza'rabar. The bird-like Nak'tol turned stopped and then turned her frame around to face them.

"Welcome to the city of Naza'rabar!" She told them excitedly and raising her arms into the air, as if to present the city to them.

Behind her were many buildings, not just a few, but a plethora of structures. This was by far the largest concentration of civilization that they had seen so far in this strange new world. Though this particular part of the city was not very well-kept. It seemed they were in the slums of town.

Many barrels with strange blue flames were scattered about many of the alleyways with a few of the Nak'tol surrounding them. Mario assumed that the flame was probably cold due to both the color and the fact that they wouldn't possibly be gathered around a flame in the middle of a dessert.

"As you can see, these are the slums of Naza'rabar. The city has two tiers, one is the slums, and the other is the Upper Tier, home to the Az'nam family. No one but members of that family are allowed up there." Mi'kotyana informed them. "But we in the slums are not burdened by that fact, we all live quite peaceful lives here. Well... up until they started to attack..."

"They? Who do you mean?" Tails inquired.

"We like to call them Mak-Kaokao, or as they call it in your language, Armored Burrowers." Mi'kotyana answered. "No one knows why they have come here, they have always lived in the more northern parts of the dessert up until recently."

"How awful..." Aragonite stated lacing sadness within his words. "What have you done to try and stop these beasts?"

"As you already know, the only way to stop them is by destroying their cores when they resonate energy through it." She replied. "But the Nak'tol were never a combative race, we prefer the sanctity of knowledge to help us survive."

"Does-a that mean you-a all have been-a getting picked off like-a farm of-a some sort?" Luigi said worried that his question would yield a grim answer.

"Unfortunately, yes..." Mi'Kotyana gave him the answer he was hoping not to hear. "By the way, I hate to be such a brown nosing little twerp, but what the heck are you guys doing in the dessert anyway?"

"We are looking for a temple, One that holds information on the goddess Tsukiyomi."

When they uttered the name of that being, the look on Mi'kotyana's face flushed white. She quickly pulled them all into the nearest empty alley and then dropped to a low whisper.

"That name is not to be spoken in the public like that. There are many that would seek to squeeze out the teachings of Tsukiyomi." Mi'kotyana whispered to them. "If you wish to know information on this temple though, I know just the person to bring you to."

While Mi'kotyana was discussing this with the group, Luigi decided to poke his head out of the alley and see what was going on around in the city. Something then caught his eyes, something that brought not only surprise but also fear and dread. Two familiar looking people were walking past some of the local Nak'tols asking if they had seen two suspicious looking plumbers and a blue-furred creature.

Luigi knew these two, they were from the Discordial Avengers, and that meant big trouble. He softly let out a worried yelp, and then tugged at his brother's overalls.

"M-m-m-m-m-m-mario... we-a have company..." Luigi stated while pointing towards Kuratai and Raitai, the two who he had noticed.

"Oh no!" Mario exclaimed, having interrupted Mi'kotyana in saying so. "I am-a deeply sorry Mi'kotyana, for interrupting you, but-a we need to-a get out of here, and-a fast!"

"But why? Did someone catch on to us?" Mi'kotyana asked wondering what all the fuss was about.

"Oh heck... Not those guys again." Sonic said after succumbing to curiosity and looking around the corner of the alley. "This is bad Mario, we are not prepared for them right now."

Tails was just as confused as Mi'kotyana, but from the look on Sonic's face he knew it was serious, and adjusted to the situation accordingly.

"Let's-a just say that those-a two guys out there right-a now are-a big trouble, and will-a cause big damage if they-a find us!" Mario stated.

"Okay follow me then, I know this place like the back of my hand." Mi'kotyana reassured them, knowing that the direness of this matter was of the utmost importance.

She led them down the alley past three blocks before turning to the right on to a descending stair case. At the end of it, there was a door, and inside the building the door was connected too there was another set of stairs, that traveled upwards in a square shape. Going up three floors, Mi'kotyana then proceeded to travel out a entrance heading to the north. Her frame dashed on to a bridge, and shortly behind her the rest of Mario's gang followed.

They quickly ran across the bridge, avoiding being spotted by any members of the Avengers. Once they were across, Mi'kotyana instructed them to duck against the building walls. Using them as cover the group could easily sneak across the rooves.

"I have a place we can hide out at for the time being." Mi'kotyana told them. "Follow me!"

She led them across several buildings before hopping down one of the walls on to a wooden porch hanging off the side of a building. This porch was also a pathway that connected to the sides of many other structures. It was used by the denizens to make travel easier and provide less traffic on the streets. After passing by three homes, she then took a left into a more narrow alley. Mario and company continued right behind her, Luigi kept scanning around to see if anyone had noticed them yet. To his relief no one spotted them, but he was still rather nervous.

Five minutes later and Mi'kotyana had come to a halt at a particular door. Shrouded in the shadows of the alleyway the place was darker than the outer areas that were exposed to the desert sun. Motioning for them to stay here, she went inside. It was just a mere minute that she had then returned in and welcomed them into the home. A being that looked very aged sat cross-legged on a rug centered in the back of the room. On both sides of him were pots that burned some strange incense. He urged them to come deeper inside and to have a seat.

"Come in Come in travelers, make yourselves at home!" The man told them. "My name is Hek'tol and I am Mi'kotyana's grandfather. I heard how you risked your lives to save my granddaughter's life, for that I am grateful. If there is anything I can do to assist you and pay you back please let me know."

"Grandpa, These travelers seek the temple of Tsukiyomi." Mi'kotyana told him.

"Is that so? So you seek the knowledge of the goddess?" Hek'tol inquired them.

"Yes, We have been told by a chieftain in the crystal tropics of a temple in the Iron Sand Dunes that had ancient knowledge on the goddess." Sonic answered the elder. "We were hoping to get in there and maybe find out something that could help us return home."

"Although you did me a huge favor for protecting my Granddaughter's life, The temple of the goddess is strictly forbidden from having outsider's crawl around in it's interior." Hek'tol informed them. "Only those with the blessing of the elders may be granted entrance, and you must do something truly noble to warrant that."

"Ugh, This is not good, what do we do Mario?" Aragonite whispered into his ears.

"I've-a got an idea!" He told them all. "What-a if we-a cull the recent increase in-a worms?"

"That is daring, but do you really think you have the capabilities to vanquish a matriarch of their species?" Hek'tol said unto them whilst giving them a stern look. "The matriarch is a creature that is twenty times the size of a normal worm, and has a core harder than Urgotian diamond."

"What Urgotian diamond? Not good at all." Aragonite told the group.

"Whats-a Urgotian?" Luigi asked, having never heard of this thing before.

"Urgotian diamond is a mineral farmed within the lands of the Urgotian empire that is nearly impossible to crack, break, smash, or do any kind of damage to." Aragonite answered him.

"Urgotian? I've heard that term before. You also said Urgotian empire, which I have also heard of amongst the squabbles I've had with certain creatures." Tails said beaming with a bit a pride as he showed off his smarts. "If I am correct in what I've heard, then Urgotia is the biggest empire on the entire continent, possibly on the entire planet. They also are able to harness the power of Urgotian energy, which is said to be within the atmosphere of this world, and use it to fight with."

"I am impressed Tails, you seemed to have accumulated a very good foundation of information regarding the Urgotians. We can discuss this more in detail later, as I am sure we will need to head there, but for now, we need to figure out a way to combat these worms." Aragonite responded.

"If you wish to help extinguish the rise in worm population, then head a bit north of the city, there you will find their burrows." Hek'tol informed them. "Under the sandy desert lies an intricate web of tunnels and chambers that makes up their entire colony."

"We-a will be happy to-a help you out Hek'tol" Mario settled the deal with this statement.

"I shall convene with the other elders on this matter, If you do indeed come back alive and having vanquished this big problem of ours, then I assure you that entrance into the temple will be granted to you and your companions." he said with a bit of relief laced within his voice. "I know it will be dangerous, but Mi'kotyana, I want you to guide them to the colony."

"What?! Grandfather, why me? I am just a single Nak'tol child, surely you jest in wanting me to accompany them!" Mi'kotyana said shocked at her grandfather's decision.

"Mi'kotyana, you are strong and brave, I believe in your abilities as a Nak'tol, You may still be a child, but you have much potential that can be unlocked." Hek'tol told her. "It is for this very reason that I send you out into the danger, to help these travelers on their quest. Besides, They are apparently strong, so I trust them to protect you should anything go wrong."

"If you insist on me going, then I shall go." She gave up in trying to argue with her grandfather and then turned to Mario and company and smiled. "Well? What do you think? Do you wish for me to guide you to the colony?"

"I've no problem with you joining us, you seem pretty capable for a child, no offense." Sonic said.

"I agree with Sonic, Your knowledge of the desert will help us track the Mak-kaokao down quickly." Aragonite told her.

"Its-a fine with-a me" Mario said with a jump of excitement.

"Alright, it's settled then, we shall set out in the morning." Mi'kotyana said.

That night the heroes were fed a delicious banquet and allowed to rest in the home of Mi'kotyana and her grandfather Hek'tol. Sonic struggled with another nightmare of his as he slept. In it, he could see a tower, and Amy was inside of it. For some strange reason he was inside the tower room and could see Amy, but unfortunately he could not interact with her one bit. His voice wouldn't reach her, and he couldn't even touch her, which was evident when his hand just went right through her shoulder.

"Amy!" he called out to her in vain. She was just sitting at a desk, looking into a mirror with a sorrow filled face. The room looked barren and empty of everything but the desk, and a small wooden bed. While he floated in the air a strange individual entered into the room and addressed Amy. With a quick snapping turn, she faced the person, and had a look of intense fear stricken upon her features.

Whoever this was, Amy didn't particularly like.

"Now, now Amy, that is no way to treat me. You know I could just deal away with you at any second, but my superior deems it necessary to keep you alive." it said to her. "I do hope you will play nicely then, or else I will get a bit physical."

He demonstrated what kind of punishment he was talking about giving her by slapping her across the face. Amy, being in no seat of power, and with no way to protect herself from the speed of his slap, fell to the ground because of it.

"No, You leave Amy alone!" Sonic cried out.

"Oh, it seems we have a visitor." it said as it's eyes directed it's attention at Sonic.

Amy was confused as she couldn't see anyone else in the room. Sonic was even more bewildered as he assumed this was just a dream, but he at once realized otherwise when he felt his body tense up and start to struggle. He was being strangled by a strange sort of power.

"My oh my, it seems your dreams have made a strange connection with this realm, That is not good at all, you should not even know about any of this." it said in a calm and collective voice. "Allow me to sever this connection you seem to have."

Instantly he was awoken by his companions who were all worried about him.

"Amy!" Sonic let out as he woke up. He felt as sweaty and out of breath as the night that they met Aragonite.

"Sonic! Are you-a alright?" Mario asked him.

"Yeah... Just had a..." Sonic stopped short, he didn't want to burden his companions with what he dreamed about, even if it felt so real, as if it were a vision of some sort. "It was just a nightmare, a really bad nightmare."

Tails thoroughly examined Sonic from a distance. He could tell something was weighing heavily in his friend's mind, but they had a mission to do first, so he decided to inquire about it later. As the morning sun shined it's rays into the room through the windows, Sonic quickly got up and put on his usual attitude to let everyone know he was fine. Shortly afterwards Mi'kotyana came into the room and put on to a table another meal.

"Gee, for the lower section of town, you sure manage to eat well." Tails said curiously.

"Food is never a problem in our town. Everyone eats well regardless of social status." She told him. "Now dig in everybody, we have a big day ahead of us."

Once the meal had been finished, Mario and his companions set out north of town, their next destination being the colony of the Mak-kaokao.

**I would love more reviews of this story so I can become better at writing. Please leave reviews, and if you like it enough, share it with friends! Thanks!  
**


	8. Matriarch Menace

**Author's notes: I felt like writing a lot this weekend so I decided to pump out two chapters instead of just one. I felt like this chapter might have been a bit corny in the end, but tell me what you think.****  
**

The desert sun was hot as usual when the group departed from the city of Naza'rabar. Mario and his companions were determined to get to the colony of Mak-kaokao's quickly. Mi'kotyana guided them across the dunes of the desert. After about an hour of travel the group came across a very large mound with a hole the diameter of at least half a mile. Sonic peered inside of the hole and saw a path that descended diagonally downwards into a black abyss.

"It's so far down that I can't see the bottom." Sonic said as a chill went down his spine.

Mario jumped right into the fray not giving chance to any second thoughts crossing his mind about this. He was here to do a mission and he was going to accomplish that mission.

"This is the entrance to the colony of worms." Mi'kotyana told them. "I won't be accompanying you any further, but I trust that you will come back out having carried out the mission."

"You can count on us" Sonic reassured her. "We will stop this matriarch in her tracks."

With that the group said their farewells to the young nak'tol and descended into the abyss after their companion Mario. The inner tunnel system of the colony was dark, damp, and unusually warm. Mario had lit a fireball within his hand to give the group light, but the environment was very uneventful.

"What was that?" Sonic asked as a sound started to make the ground rumble.

"Hide, something is coming!" Aragonite instructed them.

Behind a side corridor the group watched as a pack of worms slithered on by.

"That was-a close!" Luigi exclaimed as he sighed in relief.

"We have to be on our toes in this place." Tails said. "There are too many enemies for us to just fight on through."

"Tails is-a right." Mario agreed with him. "We-a must be-a very sneaky."

Heading south from their hiding spot, the group started to check each an every one of the different chambers. They made sure that their movements were silent, and very strategic as not to alarm any of the sentinels and worker worms that seemed to be traversing the tunnels frequently. They almost thought they were completely lost until the stumbled upon one room that was very intriguing and provided a whole bunch of promise. It was the egg room.

It glowed with a yellowish hue and every bit of the walls were lined with sacks. Each individual sack contained a worm grub that was incubated within the egg. This chamber had no other sentinels watching over the eggs. Something caught the eye of Aragonite too. It was glinting amongst some worm slime. Interested by this discovery he decided to uncover the object. It was a great boon of a find for the entire group, because in his hands was another ring.

"What luck! Aragonite found a ring!" Sonic exclaimed.

"And in here of all places. I wonder how a ring would end up in a place like this?" Tails inquired.

"Who knows, but the rings are very old, so it's possible that they could have had previous owners that died while possessing them. A very grim thought though and I'd rather just like to think the rings just happened to be eaten by a worm instead." Aragonite theorized.

"No matter the case, we now have another ring." Sonic said.

"I-a think you should-a wear it Aragonite. Since you-a did find the ring." Mario stated.

Aragonite agreed with him and then slipped the ring on. After regrouping they started to look for another entranceway and directly the opposite side of the other side was a goo-covered entrance. Upon closer inspection the material was very thick and acted as sort of a protection measure for something within the next chamber. Without a doubt in their minds, they realized this had to be the Matriarch's chamber, or at least the path towards such a chamber.

However to no avail, they heroes could not break the thick material. Even after Mario tried his fire against it, and after Sonic had powered up his ring and slammed into it with a spin dash, the material remained unaffected. No machine that Tails created could do the trick either. Luigi unfortunately did not have a ring yet, and was powerless to do anything at the moment. This kinda made him worry about his importance within the group, as he started feeling worthless. Aragonite saw this and at once walked over to him.

"Maybe you should give this ring a try Luigi." Aragonite told him as he handed the ring over to the green capped plumber. "I can be useful without a ring, but you seem like you'd benefit more from using the ring than I would."

Luigi brightened up once Aragonite handed him the ring, and he wasted no time in putting it on and trying it out. Everyone watched as the material that they couldn't budge no matter how hard they tried, melt before their eyes in seconds. They were all astonished, and wondered what else the ring could melt and possibly do, but their curiosity of the following chamber outweighed their curiosity of the ring. Mario led the way into the next room, and discovered a spiraling pathway upwards. With a quick glance, he estimated that it was about ten stories high. Not wanting to spend time down at the bottom level, the group set out towards the top, hoping to finally find the matriarch.

Reaching about half way the group was suddenly halted by the sound of two sentinels heading their way. From both sides the sounds came, and thus pinned the group into a position void of any moves. They had to stand and fight these things. Luigi thought this would be a good opportunity to test out his new ring. As the worms approached the hero's positions the green-capped plumber readied himself for battle.

The worms then came into view, and Luigi got a good aim at the one that was descending the spiral pathway.

"Hiyahh!" Luigi called out as he let forth the power of his ring unto the unsuspecting worm. Instantly the thing's core began to melt away, not at a faster speed than the previous material, but still relatively fast. The other worm saw this and was enraged merely by the sight of it. At once it began to charge a shard storm to unleash upon the assailants that massacred it's brethren. Luigi gave it no time to fulfill it's desires to avenge it's slain comrade and cast the power of his ring once more.

The fight ended without any of the other party members even having a chance to participate. This disappointed Sonic and Mario, who were quite itching to fight. Nevertheless, the whole group was thankful to Aragonite for finding this ring and to Luigi for utilizing it's power to it's full potential. Mario believed this ring was just destine to fall into their hands in order for them to accomplish their task. Continuing on the group made it up the spiral pathway without any other problems. Upon arriving at the top they were greeted by another door. This one was of the same material as the last door they encountered and Luigi made quick work of it.

When they entered into the next chamber they were stricken with awe for what their eyes laid witness to. It was a cavern filled with chrysalis-like gels hanging from the ceiling. These gels were almost like chandeliers and lit the room up with a goldenrod like hue. At the very end of the room was a huge mound, with multiple holes in it. The group guessed this was the sleeping nest of the matriarch as it was bigger than the whole city of Naza'rabar.

"Mamamia!" Luigi frantically yelled in despair. This was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Even the tortoise that they had fought in the sewers paled in comparison to the sheer size that this creature seemed to be. Luigi was shaking in his poor plumber shoes. Bravery was not his forte, as was apparent from his openly expressed fear.

"Luigi! Let's-a do this! Do not-a be afraid of this-a thing! We can-a do it together! We-a all have each other's backs." Mario encouraged his brother.

Luigi felt better hearing his brother's words of wisdom, but it still did not overcome the fear that resided within him.

Soon the ground began to shake as an ungodly sounding crackle of a roar vibrated across the entire chamber. Aragonite stood his ground and then looked back at the others.

"It's coming! Prepare yourselves!" He called out to his companions, just as the matriarch burst out from within the nest.

It towered over all of them by a great distance, and was not at all happy with their intrusion. It's core looked different than a normal core, as it was very yellow in color, just like the yellow hue that was noticeable in all the other rooms. Around the core, were spikes pointing out of the shell for protection against many physical type assaults. Along it's back were ridges that appeared to be sharper than those around it's core. It had more teeth than a normal worm, and from what the group could see it's tail was like death waiting to smash down on any one of them and take their lives instantly.

"Holy crap! That thing is huge! Mario! What do we do?" Sonic exclaimed, even he was taken back by the sheer girth of this thing.

"Stand your ground, don't falter, this is no time to let our fortitude wither away before this matriarch." Aragonite told them. "A warrior has to fight with courage, A warrior has to fight for what he believes in, and most importantly, a warrior must never give in to fear, let bravery be the only emotion you feel when you fight!"

As everyone listened to Aragonite's words, they produced stern looks and focused them at the worm. Even Luigi, who was shaking as he did it, gave a look of newfound determination. The worm knew at once that these intruders meant to challenge it. It accepted their challenge by roaring, and at once initiated the first attack. It's charging time was swift, and took the group by surprise. Managing to jump out of the way, everyone soon became scattered about the room. Mario and Sonic, wanting to make this a swift fight, jumped into their super modes immediately.

The moment that Mario did this, he jumped with a fireball lit in his hands, and slammed it into the worms face. When the fireball hit the worms face, it seemed to only be annoyed by the attack. The mere sound of it's next roar blew Mario from it's face, as if Mario were only like a fly to him. Next up was Sonic, who prepared a spin dash, and upon completing said spin-dash, darted right at the creatures core.

Sonic managed to slam into the core, which did stun the creature a bit, but he was very careless, and brushed against one of the creature's spikes and gave himself a relatively huge gash in his side. Sonic came back down gripping his side, as it was bleeding a bit.

"Sonic be careful, this thing has many defenses against most physical attacks!" Aragonite told him as he pulled out a crystal sword he had, and slashed at the beasts spike. His crystal sword, thankfully, was sharp enough that upon hitting a few of the spikes, it had sliced them off. This left an opening to the Matriarch's core.

Tails was already inside one of his mechs, and as the spikes fell to the ground he began to fire off missiles. The worm deflected the missiles with it's tail, and then quickly retaliated with it's tail. Slamming into the ground, the tail created a shockwave and flung massive amounts of dirt everywhere. The entire group successfully maneuvered out of the shockwave's range and then began to go on the offensive once more.

Tails use a beam from a gun slot on his mech, aiming at the core. Unfortunately the beam was not strong enough to even crack the core's outer exterior, because of this, tails was completely open to the next attack the worm unleashed. Charging it up, the beast then showered the area that Tail's was at with shards. Tails quickly reacted to this by activating the shields on his mech, but they were draining his mech's energy rapidly, and wouldn't hold off the rain of shards for very long.

Mario threw a barrage of fireballs towards the creatures core to try and distract it, to no avail though, the creature merely blocked the fire with it's tail and continued to unleash hell upon Tails. Sonic even tried another spin-dash, nevertheless, the creature remained vigilant in it's attack. Aragonite went to go assist Tails, and jumped at the creatures core also. His blade sliced at the core, but again, since it was Urgotian diamond it did nothing to the creature but annoy it. Luigi realized this was the moment that he would shine, and at that moment began to activate the power of his ring. He was shaking just at the very notion of being in the combat, and even more when he thought of how the creature would react after his attack would effect it.

When he let off the power of his ring, the creatures core began to slowly melt. It was a very powerful material indeed, because this was by far the slowest melting the group had seen. Just as it seemed the Matriarch would be destroyed, it's core began to regenerate. Afterwards, the worm knew exactly who it's next target was going to be. When it swung it's tail at Luigi, a crescent shaped beam of energy came out of the mace-like end, and barreled towards him. Luigi panicked knowing full well, that this was the exact thing he feared. With quick thinking he jumped out of the way, fear guiding his quick actions.

"Mario! We need to focus our attacks! That is the only way we will be able to destroy the creature's core!" Tails said.

"Yeah! You-a are right! Luigi! Let's-a do this thing!" Mario called out in response.

When the group had a plan that they thought would work well, the worm let out a roar. This roar was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire colony. Reinforcements arrived in a matter of seconds, and blocked the exit. There were seven worms alongside the matriarch, and they were all ready to join in the fight. The reinforcements surrounded the group, and each worm unleashed several barrages of attacks that included, showers of shards, body slams, and mace swings. This kept everyone of the party busy with a worm each. Sonic and Mario dealt with the Matriarch, while Tails dealt with 3 worms. Aragonite and Luigi fought off 2 worms each. As the fight dragged on each member of the party was becoming tired. During Luigi's fight, panic filled his body, and he was almost frozen in place aside from the dodging that he continued to do.

Time went still for Luigi then, as a battle inside of himself took place. He looked around and saw all of his companions fighting hard. Each one of them exhausted and nearly depleted of all their energy. This was a problem, especially since Luigi didn't want it all to end here. He knew they all had a mission to do, but he couldn't figure out how to abandon his fear. Inside his mind, he embodied his fear into one form.

"You-a cannot control me! I will-a protect my friends!" Luigi stated to it, tired of being afraid of doing battle, tired of fear being his motive for alot of his actions.

"You will-a aways be afraid. You-a cannot defeat the-a fear that resides-a within you!" Luigi's fear told him.

"You-a don't decide that!" Luigi replied, his voice laced with anger. The world flushed back into perspective, and around him he saw all of his allies, out of energy, and backed into brink of defeat's corner. Their faces flashed through his mind, and he began building up confidence. "I will-a not let my fear control-a me! I will-a protect the people that I-a care about!"

With that statement something began to change in Luigi, his clothes instantly turned into a combination of white and green. His frame had an aura about it that was represented also by the color green in the form of a hue. Luigi stood tall against the worms, a overwhelming amount of bravery flowed from his body, and everyone could tell that not an ounce of fear was present within him at that particular moment.

As he activated the power of the ring, it effected all three of the worms that were currently targeting him. Once the power reached their cores they melted away instantly. Luigi then jumped to assist his companions. Helping each one of them out until all of them were left with one common enemy, The matriarch. It roared in discontent for what it had just witnessed. It was upset that it's children were being slaughtered so easily, and at once began to charge it's shard storm again. The green-capped plumber then activated the powers of his ring, sending waves of energy pulsating at this creature's core. Mario and the rest of the gang, saw this as an opportunity to concentrate their attacks on the core as well.

"Let's do this guys!" Sonic yelled out feeling empowered by Luigi's brimming confidence.

"Missiles go!" Tails added as he released his barrage of missiles unto the creature's core.

Mario's fireballs, Sonic's spin-dash, Aragonite's crystal sword, Tail's missiles, all focused at the core of the worm just right after Luigi's ring began to melt away material. With one last roar the matriarch began to die, it's body crashing into the ground and then dissipating into nothingness.

Mario and company looked at the defeat of the worm, and then at each other. This was a great victory indeed, and they were all exhausted from the fight. The colony was in a state of distraught as their matriarch was now dead, leaving the leftover worms to fend for themselves. It was chaos. The worms did the only logical thing that occurred inside their minds. Flee. Flee far away from the area, and don't come back.

"Luigi! You-a did an amazing job!" Mario congratulated his brother for an impressive victory.

"Mario! It was-a because you were all in-a trouble! I-a had to help and-a do my part!" Luigi replied.

"Good job Luigi I knew you had it in you!" Sonic said to him.

The rest of the group gave Luigi their thanks for him being able to pull them through this and then they all proceeded to leave the colony tunnels. When they made it to the entrance of the colony, a happy Nak'tol was their to greet them. It was Mi'kotyana.

"I felt the release of a massive and ominous energy just now, so I rushed back to find out what it was." Mi'kotyana told them, not able to hide the excitement she was feeling. "I just knew you would complete the mission."

"It was not easy, and we couldn't have done it without Luigi's confidence." Tails told her.

"I bet you are all exhausted from your battle, let me guide you all back home. Grandfather will be happy to hear the good news." Mi'kotyana said to them.

Up high in the air, floated a humanoid with blackened devil wings. These wings had patches of holes within them as if they were aged and dilapidated, but the female appeared to be very young.

"So those are the ones he spoke of." She said to herself. " 'She' is not with them though... Perhaps I am a bit early. No matter, my master wants me to watch them and 'her' so that is what I shall do."

The female smirked as she said this and then floated off into the setting sun.

**Again, I hope for reviews to improve my writing, and also tell your friends, if you find the story to be interesting enough. Report any mistakes in grammar or spelling also, I may have missed some errors.**


	9. The Temple of Tsukiyomi

**Hello everyone! This update was a rather slow one, and I know that I am a bit random on posting updates anyway, but I am aiming to get a chapter or two in every 1-2 weeks. **

When Mario and company arrived back at the city, they were surprised to see the citizens there gathered in flocks.

"Hoorah! They have slain the beasts from the north!" One villager said.

"Now I can scavenge for resources in the desert without fear! Praise the Goddess." another chimed in.

"I told the villagers that you would return having vanquished the matriarch." Mi'kotyana told them.

"It is our duty to provide protection to those who are in need of such services, Young nak'tol." Aragonite replied.

"My grandfather had instructed me to bring you to the temple after you had returned from your quest." She said to them as she began to motion towards the west of the city a bit.

"A temple?" Tails asked.

"Yes, The temple of the elders. It is where the elders of our village go to gather and discuss important matters. Grandfather wishes to have such a meeting with you and your companions." She replied.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road!" Sonic said impatiently tapping his foot ready to depart.

And with that Mi'kotyana began to guide them to where this meeting would be held at. When they arrived, the group couldn't help but stare in awe at the courtyard of the temple grounds. It was a large yard that was symmetrical in design.

The yard could be divided into four quadrants, each one being assigned to a specific corner. Within the epicenter of each area, was a small little fountain that was covered with floral life all around it's base. Strange looking amphibious creatures swam in these pools and filled the air with their mysterious sounds.

A path way that went down the border between two quadrants lead up to the temple. The stone path met with a set of stairs that allowed entrance on to the outer patio area of the temple. Alongside the end of the road were two jade statues depicting the goddess Tsukiyomi. Mi'kotyana lead them all the way up the stairs and into the main chamber of the temple. There in the center sat six elders around a circle that was carved into the floor.

"Welcome, Chosen ones." One said to them as they entered into the chamber. "Please let us begin the meeting."

Mario and company soon found themselves sitting down in front of the collective elders' and listening to the discussion they were having.

"In regards to your actions, we, the elders of Naza'rabar have come to the conclusion that you are of worthy enough status to receive the blessings of the goddess." Hek-tol said to them. "To accomplish this, we require that you all step within the circle of Balo and prepare to be blessed."

Not a single one of them hesitated on following through with the elder's instructions. Stepping into the circle, each one of them felt strong feelings of confidence flowing through them, nevertheless, a bit of intimidation coupled this feeling too. For some strange reason, even though the group's instincts told them otherwise, this ritual sent chills up their spines.

"Everything feels so weird... I'm feeling weird... It's like my whole body is being invigorated..." Sonic said.

"This force that so freely wraps around my frame and constrict it, but yet invigorates me at the same time, what strange power could it be?" Aragonite pondered as the energy provided his mind with motivational quandaries.

Mario felt the force focus it's pressure inside of his heart, and soul. A passing moment later, and the pressure caused by this empowering force increased. At the last second that everyone assumed they would burst at came about, a euphoric feeling of release triggered. The ritual had been completed and they had received the blessings of the goddess.

One elder stepped forwards into the circle and approached Mario. In his hands he held a map.

"This is the map that will guide you directly to the temple that you seek." he told them. "Be warned though, the way to the temple is littered with traps and all sorts of things to keep out even the most skillful of adventurers."

Hek'tol then began to speak to them. "I wish you luck on your trip young heroes. May you find exactly what you need."

And with this last statement the meeting had convened and the elders were now departing. All except for Hek'tol and his granddaughter.

"You all come back once in a while and visit before you depart from this world, okay?" Mi'kotyana said to them.

"Yeah, we will!" Tails replied.

The group all nodded in response to this. Sonic was getting a bit antsy again, and was wanting to leave right away. He displayed this with the signature tapping of his foot with his arms crossed and his frame being propped against a wall.

"Let's go man! We got temples to explore!" Sonic said imprudently.

"Okay Sonic! Mamamia!" Luigi said in response.

After saying their goodbyes the heroes stepped out of the temple and passed through the courtyard. Outside in the city they were faced with multitudes of different structures once again. By this time they had a good grasp on the layout of the city and could traverse it without much problem, but some places were still a bit unsettling.

The buildings themselves were carved from what appeared to be smooth sandstone. Designs of Nak'tol design were intricately woven into the very stone itself. Each building was different in height, shape, and design and three shades of sandstone colors were common among them.

On the higher parts of the buildings were the rafts that served as plank-like bridges for easy transit across the city. Mario and company remembered using this when they first arrived in the city. Among other things that they saw up there were floating statues that seemed to be empowered by Nak'tol prayers.

"I-a didn't see that when-a we first got here!" Mario said when they all discovered it.

From their position they could just barely see above the edges of the building tops. What they saw was the dome like tops of towers that lay in the upper tier of the city. Back down at the lower level of the city the citizens were busy with their daily routines.

When the group had started to leave, they passed by many denizens who were peddling and advertising their goods. One stand sold Jewels and amulets of luck and another sold Nak'tol-styled clothing. They soon came to the edge of the city and examined their map.

"So the map says we need to go this way." Tails said after having a look.

"Alright then let's go!" Sonic blurted out as he started to dart ahead of the group into the desert.

This invigorated the rest of the group into a run towards their next destination.

...

"Arrggghhhh" Hyotai roared. "I will decimate those plumbers and that hedgehog! They piss me off so much!"

Hyotai was raging in a sanctum of flowing water. The room looked like it was a simple one, only having one platform raised above a lake of crystal-clear water. On the sides of the walls, were holes for which slow-paced flows of water poured into the room from. The platform had a set of stairs that wrapped around at it's base and were submerged halfway into the water. Scattered about the water were smaller platforms that didn't rise as high as the center one.

This was Hyotai's chamber. It was were he could escape to when he wanted to be alone, when he wanted to express his emotions. He felt expressions of emotions other than anger to be a form of weakness. As he was throwing his tantrum, a crystal-like sheet connected to two crystal spires located in a corner of the room flickered with an image. It was that of another member of the Avenging Knights of Discord, Kuratai .

"Hyotai, Your presence is requested in the main hall." Kuratai told him. "I hope that you have stopped your bawling once you arrive up here by the way, I wouldn't want our leader to see you in such a state of distraught."

"Shut the hell up Kuratai, You know better than to try and tease me." He snapped back at her, as he got up and prepared himself to leave his room.

Kuratai shut the communications off after having let a smirk form on her lips and a snicker be heard from her. Hyotai was annoyed at her taunting. He didn't like for people to make fun of his emotions like that, let alone even know about them in the first place. Walking down one of the sets of stairs he jumped from platform to platform until he landed on one that was next to the wall. A door opened up instantly and he stepped into a hallway.

The hallway had marble flooring and the walls were lined with red wallpaper that was embroidered with gold trimming. Walking down about three rooms he reached an elevator and entered into it. Upon reaching the third floor he stepped out of the elevating platform and into a room of which the gathering would be held in.

"So good of you to join us Hyotai, we were worried you wouldn't show up!" Kuratai chastised him.

"I was.. busy with something." He stated while grinding his teeth. His better judgment told him that it was not a good idea to start anything in. Especially with the leader in the room.

Honootai began the meeting after glaring at two of his members who seemed to be having interpersonal problems. This stare from their leader made both Kuratai and Hyotai cringe. Soon both of them had taken their seats swiftly.

"The meeting shall begin now." He stated calmly. "We have located the temple that the elders have spoken of."

"Two of our members have already been dispatched to the area." Honootai continued. "I want two of our members to serve as a backup team, should the need arise for any assistance."

"Who shall go then?" Kuratai questioned.

"Simple, to improve your relations with Hyotai, I have decided that you shall partner up with him and distance yourselves from the temple about two-hundred feet." Honootai responded.

"Ughh, why him?" She replied with a sound of disgust.

"Is there a problem with my decision Kuratai?" he asked her while giving her his calm yet cold stare.

"No..." she replied in obedience.

"Good, You will set out in the morning tomorrow." after saying that he departed the room.

"Grrrr, Look I don't like this just as much as you don't like it, but if we value our existence then we will do it. You know how he gets sometimes, when he loses his cool he is an absolute monster" Hyotai told Kuratai.

"Don't say that so loud! He might be listening in to our conversation." Kuratai scolded him.

"Hmph, C'mon, the quicker we get this over with the quicker we don' have to endure this torture." Hyotai commanded.

"Who said you were giving the commands here?" she scoffed at his attempt to swipe control of the mission from her greedy paws.

"Just shut up and get moving" he ordered once more.

"Heh, why don't you make me?" She drew her sword ready for a fight.

"Tch, I don't have time for this, do what you want but I have an operation to finish, with or without you." Hyotai responded to her challenge in a somewhat shocking manner that baffled her.

He then proceeded to leave the main meeting room in preparation, leaving a annoyed and confused Kuratai there to contemplate on what just happened. Quickly realizing that Hyotai might actualy leave her, she also went to prepare herself.

Hours later the group could be seen ascending and scaling a rather large sand dune. They all appeared to have taken their toll from the sweltering rays of the sun and appeared to be completely exhausted. When Sonic reached the top he plopped down on his rear end and began to complain.

"We have been searching for hours and still have not found this damn temple" He said in annoyance.

"Patience my friend, we will discover the temple soon enough." Aragonite told him.

"Easier said than done pal, i'm melting out here and all I can see for miles is more sand. "I don't see us finding this place anytime soon"

Sonic kicked at the sand and suddenly his toe stubbed against something other then sand.

"Yeowch!" He yelped in pain. "What the hell was that!"

As Sonic was holding his foot and hopping around in pain Tails went to the spot he had kicked at and gave it an inspection. Mario and rest of the gang witnessed him un cover part of a temple obelisk. Strange text was carved into the stone and was indecipherable. When he started to uncover more of the sand a clicking noise was heard. Not even a split second of heart-stopping silence later and the sand they were standing on began to shift and move.

"Whoaa! Everyone try to stick together! Its a quicksand trap!" Tails called out to them though it was too late for them to do much of anything.

"Mario!" Luigi yelled to his brother as he saw him get swept into the center of this sand rapidly. To the horror of both Luigi and the group Mario was quickly swallowed up by the shifting sands.

This was the same fate that befell the rest of the members of the group. Their visions turning black as they sunk below the desert.

Thud! Their bodies had hit some kind of solid surface, and after shaking off a bit of daze they all rose to their feet. Examining their surroundings Mario deduced that they must be inside the temple. His reasoning for this was justified by the depictions of rings on the walls that were illuminated by smal strands of sun rays.

"Ugh my head hurts, where are we?" Sonic said

"It-a looks like the-a temple that we are-a looking for!" Mario told him as he dusted off from sand from his shoulder and his cap.

"Great, now we can start investigating this place for clues" Tails exclaimed with excitement towards being able to check this place out.

"I must be made aware of the exact clues that we are seeking out, my friends." Aragonite inquired.

"Thats-a easy! We-a are looking for clues on how to-a get back to-a our worlds" Luigi responded to his question.

Once they were aware of where they were located the group then fanned out and began to investigate the room. After a few seconds Mario discovered a tunnel that led to a bigger room. When they first entered into the room the smell of damp stone and the dry musty air befell their senses. Directly in front of them was the edge of a balcony which had no railing to prevent any unneccesary accidents. Peering over the edge, Sonic looked down to see a near-endless pit flush into his vision.

"Whoa, This place is crazy deep, how are we ever gonna find the answers to our problems in here?" Sonic yelled out in annoyance.

The others took a gander and felt some despair towards the gigantic search that lay before them, nevertheless, the pressed on. Sonic got back up on his feet and quickly zipped ahead inspecting several of the rooms that were nearby. One room contained the bones of a long-since deceased human, another room had an empty treasure chest, and a third room contained nothing but cobwebs.

Mario and company had also began covering more ground by splitting up, and for the next 30 minutes their searching yielded no results. It wasn't until Aragonite discovered a stair case that both descended and ascended that anything of big interest happened. When he arrived at the staircase a sound of some sort echoed from the upper floors. Since it was pitch black and he was all alone in this particular part of the temple he decided to head back and fetch a friend to investigate this.

He found Tails and had told him of the events that transpired. Upon hearing this, Tails followed Aragonite back to the scene of the noise.

"What did it sound like?" Tails asked, curious about it.

"Uncertainty clouds my ability to discern that, but if needed to give my best guess I would assume another being in pain." Aragonite answered.

"Let's go check it out then." Tails suggested to him as he started to climb up the stairwell. Upon reaching the next floor he was introduced to a room with a pedestal halfway across the other side. Aragonite and him discovered that on top of the pedestal was an orb that was dormant. With another quick glance at the room Tails spotted a door that was closed. When he gave the door a shove, it didn't budge or move at all.

"Drats the door won't open." Tails said with disappointment but then swiftly linked the orb on the pedestal to the door. "Wait a second I think I have an idea, but we need to figure out how to use that orb there first."

"That is quite the quandary, my friend. I don't see anything that would resemble a switch residing anywhere on neither the pedestal nor the orb itself." Aragonite replied to his proposal. "Perhaps caressing the orb in some sort of manner would do the trick?"

"It's a possibility that I am willing to try." Tails said as he moved closer to the orb. Aragonite watched as his hands rubbed against the glass like surface of the object, and to his surprise a light began to shine within the center of the orb. Within a minute of caressing the door suddenly rose up and opened a new path for the two. Tails found a hallway laying before him as did Aragonite who followed behind him closely.

"Hmm there are so many paths in this temple, do you think we will ever find the main chamber?" Tails questioned.

"It is a hard matter to envision, nevertheless, I do not falter in the belief that we will eventually discover that which we seek." he responded encouraging his young fox friend.

A faint gale of wind meandered through the foyer that lead to a menagerie of different chambers, but what most intrigued the heroes was the pattering of footsteps by people. Quickly hiding behind some pillars that happened to be in the surrounding area, they peeked their heads out just enough to get a good glance at who was walking around. To their surprise the sounds belonged to two individuals who they had not encountered before.

"Who are they?" Tails asked Aragonite to which he responded. "I have not the faintest clue."

It was then that, upon closer inspection when they were getting closer, their clothing and armaments had engraved in them, symbols similar to that of the Avenging Knights of Discord. This troubled the two who hid from these new enemies. Using great skill in sneaking, Tails and Aragonite shuffled away from this anteroom into a much larger chamber.

They could hear the voices of the new foes as they slipped past them unnoticed. After stopping, Tails exhaled a sigh of relief. What were members of that organization doing here? How could THEY of all people have been blessed by the goddess to even discover this temple? These thoughts crossed both of their minds and soon they were drowning in a sea of questions that this brought up. It was then that Aragonite began to speak up with a plan.

"We must inform Mario and the others of our discovery, It is best that they know what to look out for now." Aragonite told Tails, the features of his face containing a look of dead-seriousness.

All of the heroes except for Tails and Aragonite had returned from their exploring and were discussing what they had found. None of them had anything that would help them progress towards their goal of leaving this world. When the two others returned, they were stricken with a fierce intense look that Mario instantly recognized.

"Hey! You-a two, You-a seem to look-a like you found-a something out!" Mario inquired curious to see if his supposition was correct, to which he was hoping he would be wrong.

"I have bad news my friends, Tails and I discovered more vagrants from the band of thugs that refer to themselves as the Avenging Knights of Discord." Aragonite informed the group.

"So-a my suspicion was-a correct then!" Mario said a bit annoyed that his intuition had been correct like it usually was. "My-a instinct told me-a that you-a guys encountered something!"

"Thankfully, we didn't arouse their attention so they don't even know we are here yet." Tails chimed in.

"The question I want to ask is what the heck are they doing here in the first place? I mean come on, why would they even know where this place is, let alone even be allowed to enter here." Sonic said, his voice laced with anger.

"It-a doesn't matter how-a they got here, what-a matters is that-a we don't encounter them-a in anyway-a possible." Luigi said to them, not a single shred of cowardice being present within his words.

"I agree with Luigi, we are in dire need of a evasive maneuvering plan." Aragonite also said.

"Have any of you found any other paths that lead up to the next floor?" Tails inquired.

"Nah, this place ain't got nothing, we looked high and low." Sonic replied to his fox-friend's question.

"We-a always have the-a choice of-a jumping down from the-a ledge." Mario suggested.

"No way Mario, I really don't like the looks of what is down there. Not to mention I've been hearing running water ever since I went to go check the rooms back there." Sonic scoffed at the idea of jumping the ledge. He feared that there was large pools of water down the hole that Mario desired to traverse into.

"It might be our only choice at this point Sonic." Tails tried to convince him.

Before anyone else had a chance to even respond to the discussion a large blast-like sound was heard in the upper floors of the temple. When this blast occurred the shock waves shook the entire foundation, and whilst this shaking happened rocks fell from crumbled chunks of temple wall. One rock smashed into a very loosely fitted tile on the ground, and shattered it instantly. Aragonite who was standing a good distance from it, was the first to see what that tile was hiding underneath it.

"My companions, I encourage you to come take a gander at what I have just found, It may be the answer we have been seeking to our current problem." Aragonite announced to the group.

Upon closer inspection the area that the shattered tile had previously been was merely a cover up for a hole. Attached to the side of this perforation was a ladder that descended into the black-void that swallowed up most of the pit.

"It-a seems like a path has-a opened up for us!" Mario said while being the first to climb down into the darkness.

**As always, if you like the story review it, favorite it, and tell your friends about it. Each and every review and view is appreciated very much! Thank you!**


	10. The Chamber of Souls

The darkness was heavy in this particular part of the temple. It created a blanket of weight over their shoulders as one by one they entered into the room. Having not a single idea of what to expect from, they all stuck together to ensure a higher chance of survival. Mario focused energy from his ring and created a fireball to make the room visible. When he did so, the room lit up and revealed a center area that was shaped in a square. In each corner of this square there were unlit torches, and against each wall in all cardinal directions there were doorways.

"Well great what the heck are we suppose to do now?" Sonic stated as he looked around.

Tails noticed that the door directly to their north was barred and was not passable but the other doors did not possess this same characteristic. It was then that he assumed the other doors were not locked.

"Let's try to open the other doors, maybe there is something in there we can use to open this locked door." Tails suggested to the group.

"Perhaps we should go in pairs as well, It would better improve the chances of our survivability" Aragonite chimed in.

"But we-a only have 5 in our-a group!" Luigi said in response to his proposal.

"Hmm, that does create quite a dilemma." Aragonite replied. "I shall go forwards alone then."

"C'mon then! Let's go check this place out, the longer we stay in here the greater the risk of those Discord punks finding us." Sonic stated.

Setting out in pairs the group split up and went different paths. Just as Tails had suspected the doors other than the northern one were all unlocked. Tails had paired up with Sonic and they had chosen to go down the western path. When they walked into the hall, they felt a strange presence. The walls and floors began to shift and twist, revealing to them a spiraling and warped path.

"Hmph, tricks like this won't scare me off." Sonic stated as he zipped down the new warped area in a burst of speed.

To the surprise of Tails, Sonic traversed through as if the hall was normal. The best kind of supposition he could ascertain was that this was just an illusion meant to halt trespassers from going any further due to fear. Tails made his way to where Sonic was waiting for him at and waving his hand.

"Hehe, Piece of cake." Sonic smile as he said that. "I would have thought this place would have better traps then that."

Just as he finished his sentence something caught the corner of Tails's eyes. It was that of a axe pendulum swinging down from the ceiling. A trap had been activated, and thankfully Tails caught wind of it just in time. Lunging forwards he tackled Sonic out of the way. Only a nick of his tail fur falling victim to the sharp axe.

"Shoo that was a close one." He sighed in relief. "Sonic you have to be more careful!"

"Whoa, Thanks bud, I could have died just there." Sonic laughed the incident off before standing on his feet once more. "Where are we now?"

The room they were in was a small room, with large pillars in it. Each pillar was large enough to hold 9 people on them, and there were a total of 6 pillars. Between the pillars were large gaps that held at their bottoms, a sea of spikes. Having gazed at this for more than three seconds, the two wondered how they would make it past this.

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The path that Mario and Luigi chose was the southern path. They had managed to traverse their hallway with no problems and soon found themselves within a room filled with gold colored water. Upon dipping his finger into the liquid Mario found that his glove had been dissolved in an acidic like agent. Mario's eyes then looked across the pool to find a doorway on the other side. The problem for them now was how to cross?

"It-a seems like we need to find-a something to help us get across this, but-a what?" Mario pondered.

As Luigi listened to his brother's suggestion as he examined the whole of the room. His eyes then flickered their attention towards something on the ceiling. Growing from the cracks were thick vines that looked strong enough to hold one person, and there were plenty of them for the brothers to cross the liquid. This was their solution to crossing, and because they were the Mario brothers, reaching them would be no problem with a little bit of jumping.

"Luigi, Let's-a do this!" He said hopping on to his brother's shoulders, who gripped his eager brother's ankles upon his landing.

Doing a running dash towards the edge, Luigi hopped to the nearest vine. Mario gripped it tightly, and then swung his legs forwards. Using the momentum of the swinging vine, and Mario's legs, Luigi then propelled himself towards another nearby vine. Almost missing the vine, Luigi started to drop from it before making a very lucky save, gripping at the tail end. Luigi then used this chance to reestablish some kind of attachment to the plant.

After that close-call the brothers then made their ways across the pool of golden substance and landed safely on the platform to the next room. They slowly opened the door and walked into their next destination.

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Aragonite had chosen the last path that remained after the others made their selections. He was a bit nervous about going down it alone, but he shrugged if off. Being alone all the time made one of his kind used to the solitude, and because of this he soldiered on. The hallway felt distorted. Almost as if another presence was there, but Aragonite had no way to discern this for certain. Upon reaching the first room he was greeted with varying pillars that had ladders attached to their sides.

From the view he got at his current position he could see a few of the objects on the pillars. He pulled himself up one ladder and climbed to the top for a better look. When he climbed over the edge of one pillar he could see some strange crystal-like structures. On the wall there was some sort of depiction. He could make out a pattern of some-sort. The first depiction displayed flames burning villages, the second depiction had waves of water flood what appeared to be fields of crops, and the third depiction appeared to be thunder raining havoc on animals.

Examining the room again, he noticed that each of the crystals held a certain color to them. One being red, another was blue, and the final one being of yellow.

"I wonder if the strange mural has anything to do with these crystals." Aragonite pondered to himself. "I must seek out an exit before wondering about such trivial things first though."

Doing a quick look, he found an exit, but it had bars in front of it. He was stuck in here, unless he found some kind of way to remove the bars. This reminded him of the crystal objects on each pillar. When he took a closer look at the one closest to him he found that striking it made it glow, and upon striking it a second time the glow dimmed and then vanished.

Looking at the mural again, and then to the crystals he concluded that they must be struck in the order the colors of the disasters appear in. The color of flames, red, was the color of the furthest crystal away from him. Lucky for him the distance between each pillar was a good hop away. Aragonite prepared himself for a jump, and hopped across each one with ease.

Arriving at the pillar of the red crystal, he soon swung his blade at the crystal and watched as it glowed brightly with the strong essence of burning red. A click echoed through the room and suddenly arrows began flying out from unknown locations. He had activated a trap upon striking the crystal, and now had to dodge arrows while jumping from pillar to pillar.

An arrow whizzed past his head, nearly scathing his cheek had he not moved ever so slightly out of it's way. Afterwards he quickly jumped to the middle pillar, striking the next crystal in the chain, and then dropping to a plank position to avoid a barrage of arrows. Rolling to the edge of this pillar he did another jump and jumped at the last crystal, slashing downwards at it with his blade. As soon as he did this another click happened, and the arrows ceased firing.

"Well, that was a rather intense situation I got myself into." he softly said to himself.

Seconds later the bars that blocked the door raised up and allowed him to continue on. He climbed down the ladder and walked over to the door opening it slowly and traversing into the next room. Aragonite's journey down this path ended when he entered this room.

"What is that?" He said as he approached what appeared to be a chest of some kind. Inside the container was a little sphere that contained that of a small little ember. It was very strong, and produced a vast amount of light.

Thinking about the situation they were in, he assumed this would be an important item to bring back to the main room and soon tucked it into one of his satchels. He then departed the room and began to make his way back to the others.

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Sonic and Tails were contemplating on what their next plan of action was for crossing this sea of spikes and platforms. While enveloping himself within deep thought, Tails peered over the edges and gazed at everything to seek out something that would help them cross. Sonic who hadn't any clues at the moment began to lean against the wall a bit to ponder on their problem. As he pressed against the wall, his rear end pushed into a button, and instantly invisible bridges made themselves apparent.

Sonic quickly jumped back a bit as he felt the moving of the button. Upon seeing the bridges Tails began to make a supposition. He let his foot slowly press into where he had seen the bridges when they were lit up. Just as he had hypothesized, these bridges were solid, but not visible unless the button was pressed down.

"Hey Sonic, Nice discovery! Now we can cross this pit." Tails congratulated him on his accidental achievement.

"Heh, I guess sometimes you don't have to think at all." Sonic stated with a smile.

"Don't get cocky Sonic, we still have to cross." Tails warned him as he began looking for something to hold the button down.

A statue was near the edge of the platform they were on and luckily for them it looked movable. Tails called Sonic over to the statue and together they pushed it until it was directly in front of the button. With one final movement the back of the statue soon pressed the button into the wall, making the bridges visible once more. This made traveling over the spikes a walk in the park now, that is until they got to the final bridge which led to their next destination. Suddenly the statue that was pressing the button down was pushed away by the retraction of it.

"Oh no!" Tails exclaimed.

"Just keep moving forwards, we know the bridge is still in front of us." Sonic said to him.

With a few steps of caution Sonic soon gained balance over the invisible bridge, Tails was hanging a bit on to him, nervous about the spikes below. Slowly they made their way over the bridge and after having passed that semi-nerve racking moment, Tails took a moment to relax. Sonic looked back at what they had came across, and wondered if it would even be wise to attempt coming back this way. He quickly refocused on to the room ahead of them as Tails regained his composure.

"Let's keep moving Tails" Sonic suggested, as he moved towards the door.

Tails followed him and entered into the room. Both of them discovered a chest, just the same as Aragonite had found. When they opened it up they received the same sphere that contained a small burning ember.

"What is this thing? Do you have any idea Tails?" Sonic asked his buddy.

"I have no clue, but I assume we might be able to use it in the main room." Tails answered him.

"But how on earth are we suppose to get back without being able to see the bridges?" Sonic inquired.

"Good question." Tails wondered.

As soon as they were about to make their way back through the spike trap room, a hidden passage way opened up. Hesitantly they both decided to take this secret passage. Hoping that it would lead them back to where they all split up at.

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Mario and Luigi came into a small little room that had a chest in it, but something seemed off about this. It was too short of a trip for them to just be handed a treasure chest. So they approached with caution. Each foot step was made with much calculation, their eyes peering from side to side to inspect everything that lay between them and the chest. When they arrived at the container they waited for something to spring forth but to their surprise nothing happened.

After having come to the conclusion that there was nothing here, they began to open the chest. This was just about the time that they let their guards drop. When that happened a cloud of smoke erupted from the chest. Out appeared a strange sort of creature. It's form was that of a gelatinous glob, that was able to float. The appearance of it's face was that of a skull, and out of it's back protruded a large spike of some sort.

"What-a is that thing Mario!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I don't-a know Luigi! But it-a has something from-a that chest!" Mario replied. "I wonder what it-a is!"

"It-a looks like its-a defending it!" Luigi pointed out. "Maybe it-a is important for-a opening the door?"

"In-a that case lets-a get it from him!" Mario suggested.

Mario and Luigi jumped back prepared to fight the thing. In it's hands it carried an orb, the same that both the other parties had found and were now taking back to the center room. The creature laughed at them in a creepy manner and then spun around until vanishing completely. This left the Mario brothers confused. Without anything else to do in the room they quickly headed back with the belief that the creature just traveled to the main chamber.

With that last encounter, everyone had accomplished their mission and were now heading back. All except the Mario brothers carrying with them an orb. The air was starting to fill with the familiar scent of battle.


	11. Showdown in the Netherfield

All three groups slowly made their ways back to the center. Everyone but the Mario brothers had an orb with them containing a flickering ember. At the same exact time they all entered into the main chamber. Floating in the center was the being that Mario and Luigi saw earlier. It levitated steadily in the very middle of a altar like structure, its beady little eyes darting from person to person.

"Heh, you have all finally arrived." It said to them giggling in a slightly high pitched voice that. "Now that you all have made it here I shall inform you of your next task."

Task? What next task?" Sonic asked the specter.

"The task that you need to accomplish in order to progress in the temple." he continued.

"And that-a is what?" Mario inquired.

"To defeat me in combat!" As he said this the dimension began to shift as did the shape of his upper body. This change was also simultaneously accompanied by a deepening of his voice.

The form of his upper body gradually began to resemble that of a very muscular humanoid. The dimensional plane was completely different now, it was like a void. A large barren field of nether energy greeted the group. The spirit floated in the center of the dimension looking at all of them still. The air around them was thick with nether vibes.

"Now, which one of you wants to try first? Wait, I have a better idea." He said this while flexing his pectorals and suddenly he smirked while narrowing his eyes. "All of you come at me at once."

Mario was charged up his fire based abilities instantly and quickly charged into the fray of battle. Eying his opponent he smiled, and then stormed ahead to confront him in battle. Joining the battle as well were Mario's companions, all tensed up and ready to fight. Clashing with the mustached hero, both Mario and the poltergeist erupted into combat with a flurry of fists. Each blow they sent collided precisely with one another's strikes.

Sonic, using the speed of his ring appeared behind the specter and clamped both of his hands together raising them above his head in preparation for an attack on him. Just as he was about to swing, the poltergeist turned around and swiftly round-house kicked him in the gut, sending the blue hedgehog plummeting back down to the ground. Witnessing this, Mario charged some fireballs and let them loose upon his foe. With ease the specter moved from side to side dodging every single one of them even deflecting one of them back at the mustached plumber.

Mario quickly spun out of the way of his own attack, while Luigi jumped high into the air coming right up behind their foe. Pulling out his hammer he swung with all of his might, the metal of it colliding with him. Flying back the specter was put into a small daze that only lasted a few seconds. When he regained his composure he utilized the essence of the nether and warped almost instantaneously towards Luigi. Once there, he once again used the nether energy to rapidly bombard Luigi, warping at him diagonally downwards and inflicting bodily harm with each collision.

Luigi was too slow to react to assault of the specter and soon found himself descending back to the ground. Sonic had crashed into the ground seconds before Luigi got his behind handed to him, but was not physically harmed very much by the landing. This was more so apparent when he did a back-flip out of the hole he created. Brushing off the dirt on his body, he watched as Luigi met the ground shortly afterward. He helped the plumber up and then rushed back into the fight.

Aragonite came into the scene, and rushed to a spot on the ground that was directly under the specter. Pointing his sword straight forward with one arm, he then began to spin around. Faster and faster he spun, creating a whirling vortex, himself being at the eye of this vortex. The quicker he rotated, the larger the vortex became, until eventually the vortex was big enough to consume their foe up within it. The specter was caught in the current and tossed around inside of it.

"This pitiful excuse for an attack will not stop me." He laughed as he extended one of his arms and pushed it against the current of the vortex.

Focusing nether energy into his palm, he began to combat the force of the current with it. Eventually his energy overpowered the force of the current and caused an explosion of energy. The vortex dissipated and the specter came out with not even a single scratch. Mario jumped above the specter, and doing a flip, he aimed a kick towards the specter.

"Too Slow." The spirit said as he grabbed Mario's leg and then delivered a rapid succession of punches to the plumber's body before tossing him away.

Luigi jumped up and caught him throwing him back towards the spirit. Preparing another attack on the creature, he took out his hammer, and swung it once he was near him. Blocking with both of his arms, the specter, chuckled again, but to his surprise Sonic had begun to spin dash. Sonic released his dash and came hurdling at the specter's back. The specter was trapped in a corner at this point, or so Mario and Sonic assumed until he pulled off a warping move. This left the blue hedgehog to slam right into the mustached plumber's frame.

The specter drifted back to the ground, watching the two roll from the sky on to the ground, Both got up quickly and turned to face him once more.

Tails came into the fray, armed with a mecha suit launching rockets at the specter, followed closely by his fist. Shaping his hand into a knife like form. He then swiftly used this new shape to slice the incoming rockets in half and doing it skillfully enough that he canceled out the detonation process. When the fist of Tail's mecha came at him, he merely stopped it with his hand and using focused nether energy, he ripped the limb from it's socket. Tails backed his mecha up afterward, and regrouped up with Mario and Sonic.

"Enough! Playtime has ended a long time ago. Allow me to take off the babysitting gloves and properly introduce you to the big league." He announced to them as he began to gather the energy of the void.

Aragonite and Luigi soon joined up with the rest of the group as they watched him power himself up.

When he completed this task, a wave of raw energy was thrust out from his body in a large radial area. The heroes felt this, as they shielded their eyes. Upon looking at the specter once again, they saw nothing. Within a split second, the specter had already warped and was near Aragonite, and Sonic. Doing a whirlwind with his arms fully extended, he spun and knocked both Aragonite and Sonic away from the group. This attack was followed by the specter stopping his rotations and then clamping together both hands. He aimed them towards the ground. With an explosive amount of energy, he slammed them into the ground, and caused a massive earthquake. The nether like ground was torn completely into chunks of ruble.

The power put into that seismic attack caused Mario, Luigi, and Tails to be thrown up into the air. While they were ascending, the specter then warped closer to them. Rising alongside them, he focused some of his nether energy. Suddenly he began to warp back and forth between all three of them, playing pinball with their bodies. Three minutes of chaotic pummeling later, and then he grabbed at Mario. With one hand gripping his throat, he only had one arm left to deliver any attacks. To fix this, he formed three more hands extending from his lower abdomen. Once this was completed he let loose another flurry of punches on to Mario's frame.

Luigi and Tails fell from the sky to the ground, Luigi was unconscious because of this. Luckily for Tails, His mecha saved him from such a fate. Up in the sky, Mario was getting thrashed. After the punches, the specter gripped him with two hands and then began to spin him around. Once he completed 3 rotations he tossed him even higher into the air, and then warped. When Mario was at the peak of his ascension, The specter appeared just below him ramming his head right into his gut.

He followed this up with another multi-warping attack, slamming multiple times into Mario's frame before elbowing his back and sending him hurdling back to the ground. Needless to say, Mario was nearly out of commission at this point. When he slammed into the ground, he was in crippling pain. His vitality was too low to efficiently maintain the fire powers of his ring and thus he powered down for now.

Tails was next on the specter's hit list. Charging at Tails who prepared to defend himself, He began to fire down a array of beams all aimed directly for the mecha. When these beams collided with the exoskeleton of the mecha, shields activated. However the energy of the mecha was being drained fast from the sheer amount of power the beams had.

Tails only lasted a few seconds before his shields gave out and the mecha of his was destroyed. The explosion sent him flying from the cockpit of the mecha and sent him barreling into the nether dirt. The specter counted the total of people knocked out and figured out that there were only two combatants left. He turned to face them.

"Grrrrr, I'm gonna make you pay for doing that to our friends!" Sonic said in a pissed off tone.

"You shan't be allowed to proceed after doing such a dastardly deed." Aragonite chimed in.

"Do you even think you have the powers to stop me from doing it? So far you and your companions have proved that you are not worthy of passing this trial." The specter replied. "You are both finished, so why not give up now and return from whence you came."

After saying that the specter warped behind Aragonite and wrapped his arms around his abdomen. Lifting him up with ease, he then suplexed him into the ground. He let go of him and then turned to face him aiming his palm at Aragonite, and charging a ball of energy. Sonic wasn't fast enough to respond in time, as the specter fired it at him. Aragonite's gut endured the bulk of this attack, and the amount of power put into the energy surpassed what he was able to withstand and this caused him to slip into unconsciousness.

"No! Aragonite!" Sonic raged. "That is it! No more!"

Sonic's rage was fueling him now, after having seen all of his companions knocked around by this poltergeist. Going into Super Sonic mode, he raced towards the spirit and began to unleash his fists at him. The specter blocked each and every one of his fists with ease. Sonic's next attack was a combo of kicks, with fists, and then topping it off with a rapid spin dash. All of these were dodged, blocked, and parried by the specter. He was playing with Sonic, and this became all too apparent to Sonic.

"And I thought you would have gained more power with this form of yours, I guess I was sorely mistaken. You are still weak, and shall remain weak." The poltergeist said to him.

He then rushed Sonic, spinning at him with his fists extended again, slamming multiple punches into Sonic's face before ending it with a kick to Sonic's gut. Sonic tried to counter with a kick of his own, but he blocked it. Another idea came to Sonic, as he began to spin in a rapid circle. He created small vortex, and flung them rapidly at the specter. They entrapped him within a makeshift wall of spiraling wind. Sonic then hopped into one of the vortexes and using the current he threw himself while in spin-dash formation at the specter. When the specter blocked this attack of his, Sonic jumped off the block, into another vortex. Hopping from vortex to vortex, he quickly moved around his foe, confusing him greatly.

When he found an opening that he thought would be successful he spun at the specter, but every single time he was blocked. Suddenly, in a fit of rage, he emitted an expanding radial area of energy to dissipate the vortexes. This caused Sonic to be cast out into the open once more.

"Enough games, This ends here." The poltergeist said as he quickly closed the gap in distance between him and Sonic.

Once he was in close quarters with Sonic, he started throwing focused punches in the hedgehog's face. Sonic did his best to block the blows, but there was too much power in the attack. When he put his arms up, he found them being violently jerked away from what he wanted to protect after each punch. He was sustaining many bruises now whilst suffering through the array of pummelings. The last attack that he endured sent him back a bit and skid himself into the dirt a bit. The power of it, had caused his skidding to make an indenture into the ground.

As the specter approached him, Sonic was sure it was the end. Raising his palm the poltergeist began to charge energy for a final attack. That was when Sonic heard a voice call to him. He wasn't sure where it was coming from but apparently he was the only one who heard it.

"Do you desire to win? Do you wish to defeat your enemy? Do you want to overcome the trial set before you?" The voice asked him.

"I just want to survive this and protect my friends!" Sonic answered within his head.

"Very well, I shall grant you the power to do so, but in return you will help me in the future, agreed?" The voice responded.

"Agreed." Sonic replied.

As the energy collected at the base of the specter's palm his eyes narrowed at Sonic who was starting to radiate another type of light.

"It will not work, you have nothing left that can even hope to defeat me, don't even waste your energy trying." The specter told him nearly finished with his preparations.

"No. I am not finished, Not even close!" Sonic called out as the radiant light burst forth and enveloped his entire body.

Spaulders covered Sonic's shoulders, and on his chest he wore some sort of armor with a sphere in the center that spun with energy within it. His legs were wearing greaves that were designed for rapid speeds, and upon his head he wore a helmet of some sort that covered the spikes of his hair as well. His hands donned on gauntlets that had a small dagger like blades attached at the wrist end of the armor. The color scheme of this set of armor was a combination of red, orange, and yellow. It represented the colors of flame, and also depicted patterns of fire on each individual piece.

With not even a second spared, Sonic disappeared. His body again coming into vision, but being closer to the specter. He was right next to the hand that was charging the energy, and quickly he swung his gauntlets at the specter's wrist. When he did this, the blade came into contact with flesh, and cut right through the hand of his. Watching it fall to the ground, he then realized the fight had gotten even more intense.

"Now that is what I want to see, You may be able to pass this after all." The specter complimented him, and then jumped back a bit.

Both the combatants rushed at one another, and clashed with each other. The moment the two met at the epicenter of this confrontation, a wave of energy released itself into the void, causing the place to rumble in awe due to the massive amounts of power being used in this struggle. Both of them threw an onslaught of fists so fast that only those with the utmost attention to detail could even hope to see. Swaying back and forth, the two fought with each other. Neither one relenting, not even a bit. Kicks met with kicks, punches impacted punches, and with each blow, a sound resonated across the dimension.

"Not once have I ever found anyone who was able to prevail through such hopeless fighting conditions and reach a level that you have attained during this battle." The specter said to him still letting his fists fly. "It is truly a remarkable sight to behold."

"Heh, Better remember as much as you can, cause it's not going to last for much longer." Sonic told him.

Sonic's energy sky rocketed a bit higher, and he moved with speeds that now even confused the specter. Upon a first glance, the specter started to assume there were multiple Sonic's running around him. This was incorrect, as it was merely the speed Sonic was moving at was so fast that to the untrained eye, it seemed he was in various places at one time. Using this opportunity, he quickly unleashed a wave of attacks that came at all of the specter's weak points. He was able to land successful blows on various regions on his body. He was weakening because of the hedgehog's combos.

The specter then began to do one of his spinning punch moves and began to attack every vision of Sonic he saw. To no avail he wasn't able to hit Sonic at all, and that was when Sonic appeared behind him. He did some fancy flipping acrobats, moving himself into the perfect position to land a powerful kick into the specter's skull. When he reached such a spot, he focused power into his kick, and upon his foot being aimed just right, he unleashed it.

As the foot of his impacted the specter's skull, he gave out a sudden sound of pain. Afterward he quickly descended to the ground, creating a crater when he crash landed. Sonic stepped down on to the edge of the crater and looked in it. The specter was lying on the ground, barely moving. He didn't seem to be that injured though, and soon was back up ready to continue on. When he faced Sonic, the hedgehog noticed blood spilling from his mouth.

"This is it. I've come close to reaching my limits. We must settle this with one final clash." The specter told him. "I acknowledge your superiority in this fight, but the only way to leave this place, is for one party to be defeated."

Sonic listened to his words as he continued to speak.

"So, Let us clash one last time, like warriors one last time." The specter finished up.

Sonic instinctively charged up his arms and covered them in flames. He wondered how he did that, but because of how much focus he had on the fight, he put that question aside for a later time.

He then looked at the specter, and nodded in agreement to his last statement. The specter and him locked eyes, and began to charge one last time. Time slowed down as the two came closer and closer until finally they met. The void was silent for a few seconds before being interrupted by the sound of one final explosive impact.

When the force of the attack had settled, Sonic was left standing there by the slowly vanishing frame of the specter.

"You, ,and your companions, have fought well, and I suspect that if you attained such a form from just seeing your friends in this state, then I'd imagine all of you can achieve this form." The specter said. "Farewell, warriors, you have done well to triumph over this trial."

With those final words the specter dissipated into the air, and with him the entire nether dimension faded into nothingness, leaving Sonic and his companions back in the room they were last in. The doors to the next area opened up afterward. Sonic began arousing his friends out of their slumber. Upon everyone becoming conscious again, they all decided to rest up before exploring any deeper into the temple.

**November 17th, 2012 Author's note: Shoo, I felt like this chapter was a bit confusing and maybe a bit rushed in some parts, but It is action packed nonetheless. If there is anything you feel should be edited then please feel free to do a review, but don't forget to review the content as well. ;D Also, if you like the story enough, send the link to your friends and have them read it too. Pretty please! **


	12. Embrace of the Darkness

**Hello everyone, I apologize for the long wait on this particular chapter. Let's just say that things have been somewhat busy, and I also haven't had the inspiration for this chapter as much as I had when I first thought it up, but it's slowly coming back to me now. If you are eager for more of this please let me know, and also I must ask some patients for any advent readers of this, as new chapters will come out, but slowly due to life being slightly busy. **

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As the group had prepared to depart from the room, Mario noticed that Sonic looked deep in thought. He wondered what was weighing on his friends mind, so he decided to question him about it.

"Sonic, Is-a there something on your mind that you-a want to talk about?" Mario inquired.

"Actually, I'm not sure there is much to say about it." Sonic began. "During the fight with that specter, My ring, No, something within the ring called out to me and asked me if I wanted the power to win."

"And-a you accepted that power?" Mario continued.

"Well, yeah, I wasn't about to let our mission end like that." Sonic replied.

"Did whatever you heard give you any clues as to what it might have been?" Tails asked him.

"No, It only asked me a question, and then I suddenly felt power flow through my body." Sonic replied to his friend. "I felt as if I could do anything with that power though, Like I could save everyone and everything I cared about with it."

"The rings are rumored to have some mysterious feature added to them. Not a single soul is capable of telling us what exactly this so called 'feature' is." Aragonite said to them. "It might by-chance not even be a feature, I cannot be certain, but one thing I do know, is that something bad had happened to implement this part of the ring."

"Mama-mia, Does-a that mean that the rings could all-a start talking to us?" Luigi asked a bit hesitant on the whole idea of voices being in his ring.

"I have no certainty on the subject, I have only what little knowledge that has been passed down through generations of local and city banter." Aragonite answered Luigi.

Tails shifted a bit, uneasy about continuing on with the subject. Something about this voice or spirit didn't seem right to him. Interjecting into the conversation he attempted to shift everyone's attention back to their main mission.

"Well, we don't know anything more than Sonic's account of the experience, so until we find out more, I say we put that aside for now, and finish up our mission." Tails said hoping they would not pry more into this already unsettling topic.

"Tails is right guys, let's get the heck on outta here." Sonic said, walking away from the group. He wasn't even sure what really happened to him, it all seemed like a dream. Because of this reason, he didn't wish to talk more about it. People pestering him with questions always seemed to get under his skin.

The group then entered into a new room. On each wall a mural was painted, depicting a strange story. Tails, who was just moments ago feeling a bit jittery, now gleamed with excitement. His eyes vividly displayed this too, and so too did his tails give a show of his new-found vigor as they flickered back and forth. Pulling Sonic over to him, he tried to direct his hedgehog friend's attention towards the mural.

Sonic responded to this with a questioning sound escaping his throat. While scratching the back of his head Sonic looked at what had piqued his friend's interest so much.

"It's a mural Sonic!" he said.

"Well, whats so great about it?!" Sonic replied not seeing any reason to be jubilant about it.

"It might tell us how to get home Sonic!" The fox said hoping that now Sonic would understand just how impertinent a discovery he had made.

Once Sonic realized the importance of the eerie drawings upon the wall, he became just as excited as Tails was. Grabbing Tails he shook with vigor and then he began to smile.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's read this thing and get the heck on back home!" Sonic said ecstatic about the idea of finally returning back to Mobius.

"The only problem is that I can't read any of this, But..." He turned to Aragonite and gave him a pleasant smile. "Aragonite, would you by chance happen to know any of the language carved here on the wall?"

"Hmm, let me take a gander at it, I might be able to translate." Aragonite answered while stepping towards the mural.

The language was closely related to modern Bathilian, the language spoken by most inhabitants of this world, but it was slightly different. The script was a bit confusing but similar enough that he could give a fairly decent translation. His fingers followed the words as he read to himself. Fixated on him, the whole group watched as he deciphered the text. Unfortunately, this wasn't anything that could help them return home.

"This isn't a way to return to your world i'm afraid." Aragonite began, as he turn and shook his head in disappointment.

Both Sonic and Tails' faces drooped a bit, sad to find out their hopes were smashed.

After hearing the result of the translation Luigi had drifted away from the group. Sighing in frustration he began to put it all in the back of his head. On a nearby wall was an orb, and at first it didn't look that particularly eye-catching. In fact, had it not been for a glinting of a sparkle, the dust-covered orb may have gone completely unnoticed. When his eyes met the orb for the first time a whisper slithered by his ears.

"Wanna be friends? Hehehehe" The whisper softly caressed his ears with.

The sound prompted him to release the orb's surface from it's veil of collected dust. Upon relieving the thin layer of particles from the object, it began to be pushed into the wall because of Luigi's lightly applied pressure. Worry spread over his face as he had no clue what to expect, Mario's voice broke through to him though.

"Hey, what are you-a doing over there Luigi?" His brother questioned while moving closer to him.

When his brother was close enough to see his face, Mario instantly could tell Luigi did something. Ever since they were little they could read each other's actions like an open book.

"I-a pressed a suspicious-a looking orb." Luigi confessed not wanting to even hide it since it could prove dangerous for the group.

"Mama-mia." Mario said loudly as he rolled his eyes a bit annoyed by his brother's actions. "On-a your guard guys! Luigi might-a have stumbled on to a trap!"

Each member of the group suddenly shifted into a serious mode, inching closer to one another until they were in a circle with their backs to one another. Prepared for the worst, they waited for the trap to activate. Those minutes felt like ages, and when one of them finally decided to move, they all let their guards down. After sighing in relief, Mario then slugged his brother in the shoulder.

"Ow Im-a sorry Mario." Luigi replied to the punch, giving Mario a puppy-dog face to which Mario then just smiled and chuckled a bit.

Just when everything appeared to be safe, the sound of whizzing going off was heard. Suddenly the hallway they came from was shut off by a slab of stone falling from the ceiling, and to make matters worse, red mist began pouring into the room from all directions.

"Ugh what is this stuff?" Tails exclaimed hacking and coughing as the mist enveloped his frame.

Watching Tails fall to his knees, Sonic and the rest of them began to choke on the gaseous substance. It burned their mouths, setting their taste buds aflame and leaving an awful taste. At once everyone's mouth was as dry as a desert. Sonic's vision began to get blurry, and his eyelids were growing heavier by the moment.

"Gu...ys... I feel... slee...py..." His speech was so slurred and choppy that he could barely utter his own thoughts.

Mario and Luigi were still standing when they witnessed Sonic and Tails collapse and pass out. Aragonite fell to a knee nearly coughing up his lungs before falling on to his side and slightly curling into a semi-fettle position.

Luigi's hand gripped Mario's shoulder, and he looked at his red-capped brother. Fear cast a huge cloud over Luigi's eyes, Mario could even feel him shaking. He fell to his knees, and upon doing so, he witnessed his brother giving in to the smoke. Feeling the same hazy vision that the rest of the group felt, he began to be overwhelmed by the burning gas. Not even he could withstand this as was apparent when he finally collapsed on to the floor. His mind slipped into unconsciousness.

"Ow my head!" Sonic complained slowly climbing to his feet.

The hedgehog seemed to be in some sort of low-lighted area. It was hard to see but his theory was that he was in a hallway. Not being able to see further than six to eight feet made him feel a but unsafe. The sound of shuffling movements and splashing water drew his attention to the direction in front of him.

"Mario? Tails? Is that you guys?" Sonic asked the foreboding darkness.

When no one answered, he started to get nervous. The palms of his hands became sweaty after hearing a faint and eerie giggle off in the distance. He had no clue where he was but he didn't like it. Moving down the hall a bit, a wall soon came into his vision. It was a dead end, but something else was there, a small pond. Sonic eyed it suspiciously inching carefully over to it.

"I ain't gonna fall into the water this time." He told himself, taking special care with each step he look.

When he began to take a look into the water a noise echoed from within the darkness. It was a creepy sound, and caught his attention rapidly. Turning swiftly around, he searched the black around him for whatever it was that made the sound. Nothing was found, but unbenonced to him, something was crawling from the water. Black tendrils, slowly inched towards his legs, and when they reached those limbs of his, they wrapped around tightly. Being caught by surprise, Sonic couldn't help but let out a yelp as he was quickly dragged into the depths of the strange body of water.

"Yaaaaaahahhhhhhhhhh!" Sonic yelled before his voice was canceled out by being submerged in the water.

Deeper and deeper he went, and soon he was deep enough that he could not even see the top from whence he came from. Not even a minute later, and he could feel the lack of oxygen effecting his lungs. His vision was getting hazy just before his body slipped into a state of unconsciousness. A hand of his reaching towards the top, trying to escape, but limply following suit with the rest of his body as he completely succumbed by the void.

-Tails and Aragonite-

"Ugh... My head..." Tails said as he awoke in a hallway, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room and seeing in front of him a painting of some odd sort. Abstract was the style, and it confused Tails greatly. After being attuned to his surroundings he slowly sat up. To his left Aragonite was currently passed out. It took just a few shakes from Tails to rouse him from his slumber.

"Aragonite... Wake up..." Tails called out to him once.

"Uhhh... Ohhh..." Aragonite said as struggled to move. "What happened to us, My companion?"

"I don't know... I have no idea where we even are, let alone what happened..." Tails kept looking around as he answered. The walls were a dull purple color, and contained some sort of generic trimming on the bottoms and tops. Every now and then both of them could spot a painting or sculpture on or near the walls. The flooring was made of laminated stone, though they could not tell what pattern or color it was due to the limitation of light in the area.

"What in the world is this strange place?" Aragonite inquired.

"Thats what I want to know... It's creepy.. I don't see Sonic, or anyone else around, and the darkness is very unsettling." Tails responded, starting to get a bit nervous about their new situation.

"Let's find an exit from this place, don't want to spend too long in this nerve-racking environment." Aragonite told him.

When both males had finally climbed to their feet, they started to travel in the east direction. Going down the hallway they found that the walls never ended. Constantly the scene of darkened surfaces with the occasional painting was all they ever really encountered. That is... until Tails discovered a door. Next to the door was a note written in what appeared to be red paint, but the color was more representative of a crimson blood color.

"Check this out Aragonite, What do you think it could be from?" Tails said as he began to make out what the message was trying to say. "Come join the party! What on earth does that mean?"

"I don't particularly trust that message. My suspicions lead me to suspect this room of harboring malefic monstrosities within it." Aragonite replied, being very wary about the door and what contents lay inside of it.

Tails grabbed his hand on to the door knob and slowly twisted it until he heard a click. Swinging open the door inch by inch, the room soon was found to have nothing more than a few bookshelves, a desk with a lit candle upon it next to a open diary, and on one of the nearby walls was some crudely drawn pictures. Depicted by these images was that of many humans, but upon closer inspection Tails was frightened by knives stabbing into them. More crimson colored paint splashed across the images was apparent, even amongst the dim lighting the candle provided.

"The signs of insanity settling in... Just who do you think drew these?" Aragonite wondered.

"It's hard to say... but I don't want to stay and find out, the quicker we can discover a way out of here the better." Tails said. "I... don't like this place Aragonite... something about it is shrouding me with an unsettling aura, I can't even begin to describe the creeping sensation of the ever-growing feeling of dread."

"Look away from the painting Tails, It may be trying to pull you into a false sense of fear." Aragonite instructed Tails. "Let's look for clues elsewhere. Pay no heed to the painting."

Tails removed his gaze from upon the drawings, and began to look in different places for clues. Upon the desk, a diary was flipped upon to an unfinished page.

"_Dear Diary_

_ January 12__th__ 1674_

_ It follows me everywhere I go... No one else can see it but me... It's red eyes... always watching... in the shadows... even as I write this... it watches... waiting for the perfect opportunity... to..."_

Upon the end of the final sentence an illegible word was smeared with paint, and afterwards the page was blank. Tails read this and pondered over it's contents, and the one thing that stuck out was the paint. Having investigated one of the bookshelves, Aragonite soon discovered what seemed to be a map between two books. When he checked the map out he found that the front had a childishly drawn diagram on it, and on the back there was a message that read "_Good luck!"._

"Tails I found something that might help us out." Aragonite said walking right next to Tails.

"What is it?" Tails tried to say calmly, without making his friend think he was allowing himself to drown in increasing fear.

"A map of some sort. It just might tell us how to get out of this god-awful place." Aragonite replied to him.

When Tails got a good look of the map, he found exactly where they came from and what room they were currently in immediately. Suddenly one of the bookshelves moved to the left, and revealed a new path, and just seconds afterwards a sound echoed down the hallway they had come from. Not thinking twice, Tails took the map and the lead, rushing a bit down the darkened tunnel.

"Wait for me Tails!" Aragonite called out, hustling to catch up with him.

The tunnel took them to a four way intersection. According to the map, an exit was nearby, but required a bit of weaving through an elaborate maze-like network to reach it. The two of them looked around to figure out what path was best, and ran what they saw with the crudely drawn images on the paper. None of it matched up so they were really at a loss for how to successfully traverse this maze. They soon decided to go to the left path and stick to it for a while.

"Uh... Aragonite..." Tails came to a halt and started to speak. "Look in the distance... Is that the intersection we started at?"

Aragonite squinted a bit through the darkness but just flickering in the distance was indeed the very place from which they began at.

"It appears so..." Aragonite said realizing at once what that meant, they had been walking around in a big circle. "Ugh.. I feel like no matter which path we end up selecting it leads us back to the very spot that we originated from."

Suddenly something caught Tails's attention, a sound echoing from within the darkness, the same kind of sound that he heard when they first awoke in this place. It produced a shiver up his spine, and along side this was another feeling, the feeling of being watched.

"You alright Tails?" Aragonite questioned his friend, seeing the shivers of his body.

"Honestly?... No.. I've been trying to hide that fact... but it's not gonna do us any good if I do that... I am scared of this place.. No.. Not really scared, but I have a feeling of dread..." Tails answered him. "My body shivers constantly at the sudden emergence of any kind of unfamiliar sound, I find myself looking over my shoulder constantly, and I can't shake the feeling like something is out there, watching our every movements, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike..."

Aragonite listened intently to his friend spill what he was feeling out and from the words Tails said, he too started to understand why Tails was feeling so uneasy about this place. It was very dark in here, and they had not encountered any other beings but each other. The very air here was thick and made breathing somewhat of a chore, not to mention that it was slightly chilled too.

But the most important aspect Aragonite had picked up on had to have been the feeling of being spied on. It was as if eyes that could pierce through the body and straight to the soul were fixated on both of them right now. An evil aura coated their gaze and the only thing keeping Tails from passing out was the fact that Aragonite was right there beside him.

"Let's... not get separated okay?... I'm starting to understand what you are feeling right now." Aragonite attempted at comforting his friend.

"You are right Aragonite, as corny as it may sound, we do have each other's backs, and that is all we need to accomplish escaping this place." Tails said not liking the fact that he used such cheesy words, but that was the least of his worries right now.

When Tails gazed down the north path and started to debate on whether or not to go down it, he froze instantly. He could see it as clear as day for some reason, a pair of red beady eyes, looking right back at him. Aragonite caught sight of this and quickly took a peek down the path, but saw nothing. Tails blinked watching the orbs vanish as fast as they had appeared.

"Okay... Not that path..." Tails said. "Let's try the west path."

"Sounds like a plan." Aragonite agreed, already directing his movements to that way.

Tails stopped a bit behind Aragonite, who was still walking having not noticed him come to a halt, and then looked behind his shoulder. Sure enough, he once again spotted the pair of beady eyes greeting him. At the moment their eyes met for the second time, a harrowing giggle poured from out of the darkness, followed by the shifting of stone. Quickly Tails turned to Aragonite, and had prepared to regroup, but it was too late. A portion of the wall that lined the path had jutted out forwards and swiftly connected with the wall on the other side. Both Aragonite and Tails let out gasps of shock.

A deafening sound of a low rumble started growing near Tails's ears, the darkness around him slowly creeping to his location, and the worst yet was those same beady eyes, getting nearer and nearer to him. Tails was so frightened at this point, that his voice box let out a shrilling scream of terror. Aragonite tried to smash the wall down but to no avail nothing seemed to work.

"Tails! Tails! Hang on friend! I am coming!" Aragonite called out to Tails, but he didn't receive an answer.

Silence invaded the next few minutes of Aragonite's life as he soon slumped to the floor, disappointed in himself for not being able to come to his friend's aid when he most needed it. That is when the wall soon returned to it's original position just before this event took place. Aragonite saw nothing, absolutely nothing was behind the wall. In fact, it was a completely new path altogether.

"Merciful Tsukiyomi..." He said in a whisper to himself, not wanting to attract the attention of whatever it was that attacked Tails.

Aragonite then decided to go searching for his friend, even if he couldn't save him then, he was sure as heck not gonna let that thing keep him. He readied himself for anything, and after a few deep breathing exercises he started to travel down the path once more.

-Mario-

Inside a room full of crates and paintings covered with drapes, Mario was passed out on the floor. Not long after they were sucked in Mario had began to stir, and then eventually waking up. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, he noticed a candle sitting on a small desk in a corner. Jumping up quickly, he went to go investigate it.

"Mama-mia where am I?" He stammered after realizing the desk was empty. "Luigi!?"

No one else was in the room. Taking the candle in hand, Mario began to explore. This room appeared to be a storage area of some sort, as all the boxes were marked with some kind of item name, and there were a lot of paintings carefully preserved and covered. Just then a nearby door creaked open and the footsteps of something large was heard. Mario quickly put out the candle and found a nice hiding spot among some barrels.

Looking through a peephole in the barrel he was in, he could just barely make out what was going on. Something large and very hairy was looking for something. He soon found what he was searching for and to Mario's disbelief the creature had taken a corpse from within one of the crates, and had begun devouring it.

"Oh no..." He thought to himself. The sight was gruesome and repulsive, but the creature didn't seemed to mind, even licking it's lips in a savoring and satisfied manner.

Watching intently with his pupils following this thing's every movement, Mario shivered a bit in his little hiding spot. Once the creature had left, he waited several minutes before crawling out. He knew that he had to get out of here and fast. After carefully following the blood that the creature carelessly let dribble from his maw after consuming his meal, Mario found the door. Finding out it was locked dropped Mario's mood a bit lower than what it already was.

"Son of-a koopa!" Mario swore under his breath after jimmying the knob a few times.


	13. Shadow of a Tormented Soul

**This chapter felt a bit short, but I want to conclude the arc that they are currently in within 8000-10000 words so as I am getting closer to that goal, I am kinda rushing, it will slow down in the next chapter however. Please comment, review and share the story, I want many people to read this and give positive feedback on it. :)****  
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Mario gave up after several tries to open the door. It wouldn't budge for anything. Afterwards he backed away from the door, footsteps echoing back towards this very room. He had little time to act, but with his ability to quickly assess his surroundings he discovered a sliver of light coming from behind one particularly large stack of crates.

With a grunt he jumped into action, moving the boxes that hindered his progression out of the way. The pressure started to rise once he heard the sounds of the doorknob turning. He had a feeling that thing was back and all because he had to mess with the door. There was no time to regret his actions now though as he continued to move boxes until all of them had been pushed aside. Discovering a tunnel, he crawled into it, and moved a box right in front of it just as the creature came smashing into the door.

"Mama-mia that-a was a close one!" He said in a low tone as not to give out his whereabouts.

Behind him the tunnel continued towards a new room. It was dusty and smelled a bit like dried blood and rotting flesh within the confines of that space but Mario was used to having the aroma of things far worse than this enter his nostrils. He began to move towards the source of light and before entering the room, he gave it a quick peek to make sure the coast was clear.

Oh the sights that he saw. It was thrilling in the least bit, in fact, Mario felt horrified, trying to wrap his mind around where he was, and what in the heck happened here. What he found in that room was blood painted across the walls that had long since dried just like the patches found in the crawlspace. He also witnessed the decaying corpses of people who likewise had been there for a while.

"Where the-a hell am I?!" He gasped a bit, shocked to find himself in the middle of this kind of a mess.

Mario noticed two more things that were particularly interesting to take note of. One was another desk with a lamp on it located near the door of this room, and the various weapons that seemed to be protruding from the corpses. Having no clue what kind of weapons they were he directed his attention to the small desk. Walking over to it he found a opened book of some sort, a ink bottle and quill residing near its side. A hastily scribbled out note was inscribed on the parchment of the tome.

_June, 13__th__ 1688_

_ They are coming, They are coming, They are coming, They want… to kill us all, and we can't even see them, but we know…. They are there…. And what they wield…. Weapons…. Multiple weapons…. So exotic that I cannot name a single one… the other two with us didn't make it…. It is only my good friend and I left…. Hopefully no one else becomes another victim of this cruel place…._

After reading the note Mario glanced back at the bodies, noticing the very weapons that were mentioned. A quick thought entered into his mind, coming to the conclusion that the ones who wrote the note were the corpses that lay on the floor decaying. The fact that they were still in the process of decaying indicated that they had not died that long ago, but it also meant that whatever killed them was more than likely still here. Mario decided it was time to stop hiding in rooms and find his friends and a way out of this place before anything horrid happens to any of them.

"Let's-a find a way out of-a this room!" Mario said moving over to the door.

This time the door was unlocked and he was able to open it, but before he could even begin to do that the sound of metal being removed from flesh caught his attention. Turning around Mario found that the blades and weaponry used to slay the nearby corpses were moving on their own, as if a strange power was compelling them to do so.

They were swift, and outnumbered Mario one to nine. Wasting no time, he opened the door and fled from that room, this of course was not enough to stop the swift and startling pursuit of the weapons. One type of weapon swung itself into the door, and with meager effort, managed to smash it into pieces. Mario soon found himself darting aimlessly down the hall and at one point, a jutting out piece of flooring caught on to his foot. With a tumble he fell to the ground, allowing the weapons to catch up to him and nearly surround him.

They swung at him, but Mario was too fast for most of them. Performing his signature jumping maneuvers he dodged all but one of them, which slashed into the fabric of his shirt on his right shoulder. This also grazed his skin just a bit, slowly crimson fluid oozed from the wound. Mario took to running again, as he saw no strategy for fighting against these weapons, and even more worrying was that his ring was not responding.

"Oh no! Why-a won't it-a work?!" He said wondering what he could possibly do to vanquish his foes.

As he ran down the hall, something soon caught his eye in the distance, an escape route. It was a small hole, but he could fit into it. Mario jumped towards it, and barely dodged being sliced once more by the ravenous pack of blades. This hole was different than the other one, not in aroma, but more in lighting. It was pitch black and there didn't seem to be any other side from what Mario could see. At the very least he was glad that the blades couldn't get into the hole for some reason, In fact it was very strange, but the moment he entered the hole, the weapons lost interest instantly.

"That can't-a be good!" Mario said to himself. "I wonder where they-a could be going to-a now?"

Mario spent the next five minutes catching his breath, he nearly ran half a mile before even coming across this hole, and he was exhausted from the run. Curiosity was starting to manifest within him as he felt a draft of wind blowing from deep within this pathway. Walking a bit further, he found that he could eventually stand. He couldn't see anything around him so the only sense he had to go off of was touch. Mario's hands slid alongside the nearest wall that he could find.

Eventually he discovered some weird object embedded into the wall, when he was feeling it's shape he found it to be in the shape of a circular button. Pressing it activated tunnel lights and he once again was within a area covered in blood, but this was slightly different. A message was distributed across the walls.

'GO AWAY', 'DIE', 'LEAVE THIS PLACE', 'I WILL KILL YOU' and various other disturbing lines were scattered about. At the end of the path Mario could see a door that was cracked open. Heading towards this and ignoring all of the threatening messages he soon found himself entering the next room.

"Hello? Is-a anyone here?" He called out to the seemingly empty room. No one answered him back.

This room was a bit eerie, it was a square shaped area, and alongside both the left and right walls were tables that held what appeared to be humanoid shaped relics. On the wall directly in front of Mario there was a mirror that for some reason was not reflecting the room. Upon closer inspection he found that there was a different reflection in the mirror, of a different place, but what was most unsettling about this discovery was not that it wasn't the same as this room. This disturbing image displayed on the mirror had a little girl in a room full of those abominations that Mario encountered earlier when he woke up.

He watched intently wondering when the creatures were to strike. It seemed like ages had past that he had his eyes fixated on the small girl just standing there in the reflection. She barely moved, and appeared almost limp like. Her arms hung by her sides, and her hair covered her face which was also tilted downwards a bit. A shine rolled over the surface of the mirror and afterwards the reflection changed. Mario could now see all four creatures that surrounded her slain and on the ground, their blood smeared everywhere.

In her hands she held a scalpel, and this tool along with her arm was drenched in blood, indicating it was her that killed the beasts. Even her dress had been stained. The creepiest part of it all, however, was the smile on her face. It was if she drew pure delight and pleasure from killing them, and for a mere second Mario could have sworn he heard her laughter echoing through the halls.

Following this spooky laughter, the lights seemed to go out again. This left poor Mario to fend once again in the darkness, unable to see anything.

"This is-a not good…" Mario shuddered a bit, being shocked at what he just witnessed. It really was the eerie giggling he heard that made the whole event feel surreal and produce an aura of uneasiness all around him.

He struggled to make his way back from where he came, and once he crawled out from the hole, he found that he was nowhere near where he originally came from. The hallway was a different color than he remembered and there were now small little torches attached to the wall and spaced out evenly between each individual one.

"Where am I-a now?" He questioned, puzzled at the complexity of the area he was in.

Leaving himself no time to think he departed once again into the depths of the unknown.

-Luigi-

Luigi's eyes soon opened up to a set of stairs, his body was lying on them. When he started to stand up he felt a small sore spot on his back. Being passed out on the stairs did a number on his back after all. Picking up his cap that was lying next to him he put it on and began to look around. His situation was about the same as Mario's, no one to be seen and darkness enveloping all but a single area that was lit with a candle.

"Mario? Are you-a here?" He called out to his brother, but he was disappointed to receive no response. "Oh Mario… Where are you?..."

The area that he was currently in was abnormally cold. He was shivering right down to his core and he didn't know why. To the right of the staircase there was a hallway that extended all the way down into a dark abyss, no end was in sight. Along all sides of the hallway, there were many doors. When Luigi tried to open each door he found that they wouldn't. Each door he came across was locked.

"Mama-mia… What do I-a do now?" he said in frustration.

It was then that he started to hear strange noises echoing down the hallways, they sounded like whispers, calling out to him. Stirring inside of him was the strange motive to go further down the hallway; it was as if the voice was compelling him to traverse this path. When he had traveled far enough down the hall, he noticed a door that was open and a flickering candle light within the room.

"Huh? Is someone-a there?" Luigi asked.

Entering the room he saw a desk with the candle he saw on it, and along the back was an open toy box. Above it was a message written on the wall in blood that read "Wanna play?" Looking inside the box he discovered a ragged doll that seemed to have been used a fair amount of usage. Luigi was quite puzzled by this, but he was suddenly distracted by a sudden shift in the room's temperature.

He was now face to face with a new dilemma; four vases on four pedestals forming a squared shape surrounded him. Out of their inner workings stretched four arms. All of these limbs attempting to grab at his frame. With a horrified scream Luigi was soon captured by the shadowy limbs and as he began to be consumed by them, the last thing he had heard was an echoing giggle.


End file.
